New Realism
Looking Forward and Back
“The past and present wilt – I have fill’d them, emptied them, And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.”
Song of Myself, Walt Whitman
Install Photos
Press Release
Isabel Sullivan Gallery is pleased to present Realism Today: Looking Forward and Back as its inaugural exhibition in Tribeca. The group exhibition, featuring recent works by Neil Jenney, Joseph Santore, Elisa Jensen, Victor Leger, Mercer Tullis, and Frank Webster, will be on view from March 14 through April 21, 2024. An opening reception will be held on March 14 from 6-8pm at 39 Lispenard Street.
A myriad of iterations of Realism have emerged since its inception in late 19th century France. Gustave Courbet and Jean-Francois Millet sought to convey truth and objectivity through embodied depictions of modern life and its array of social classes. German artists Otto Dix and George Grosz’s meticulous Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) paintings, created during the short-lived Weimar Republic, responded to the brutality of the First World War. Their American counterparts, Edward Hopper and George Bellows, created a new American visual idiom through their depictions of the urbanization of America and its shifting class structures. Despite the disparate geographical production of these Realist painters, what each respective iteration shares most prominently is their emergence and proliferation following great moments of social, political, or cultural change.
The past few years have been no exception to this artistic penchant, as there has been an increase in artists turning to themes intrinsic to Realism, and a recommitment to time-honored subjects, such as genre, landscape, and figurative. Realism has always functioned primarily as a means to record our epoch and its dwellers, however in its present context, the paintings included possess both objectivity and expression. Through Jenney’s painted, sculptural skyscapes, to Jensen’s shadowed, yet vibrant, intimate interiors, to Santore’s dynamic and existential paintings reflecting the human condition, to Tullis’ meditative yet piercing graphite works, and finally to Webster and Leger’s serene topographical canvases, we pose the question: What is Realism today?
The exhibition presents a selection of paintings that utilize various concepts and technical aspects of Realism. Realism today stands as the rebirth of the three-dimensional picture plane, and a turning away from abstraction. The artists included explore both internal and external space, the natural world and urban life, memory and imagination, offering a respite from the modern world. Their reflections of nature and humanity are presented for us to behold, to momentarily possess and perhaps to stir a particular affect. Our exhibition presents a survey of artists looking both forward and back – painting through the tides of today.
The gallery is delighted to have organized this exhibition in collaboration with Neil Jenney, who has remained ardently committed to both curating and exhibiting shows associated with Realism. He most recently curated the group exhibition American Realism Today at the New Britain Museum of American Art, from September 16, 2022- January 01, 2023, in which Mercer Tullis and Victor Leger were included. We are indebted to his generosity, kindness, and guidance in helping the gallery realize our inaugural exhibition.
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