Photo Flash: Nassau County Museum of Art's STILL LIFE: 1970s PHOTOREALISM Exhibition Opens Today

STILL LIFE: 1970s Photorealism will be on view at the Nassau County Museum of Art, today, July 19 to November 9, 2014, featuring works by Audrey Flack, Ralph Goings, Duane Hanson, Malcolm Morley, Ben Schonzeit, Idelle Weber and more. Scroll down for a sneak peek at the exhibition!

Still Life displays works associated with Photorealism-a movement comprising painters who took photography as their subject and sculptors who recreated the human body with surprising accuracy. A significant trend in art of the 1970s, Photorealism has sometimes been described since then as a more mechanical offshoot of 1960's Pop art. However, the works in Still Life make a compelling argument that Photorealists captured life in the 1970s with a grittier honesty than has previously been acknowledged. These works have renewed relevance as the ability of photography to capture "the real" has undergone dramatic changes and continues to develop in unanticipated ways.

Among the leading artists whose work is included in Still Life are Audrey Flack, Ralph Goings, Duane Hanson, Malcolm Morley, Ben Schonzeit and Idelle Weber.

This exhibition was organized at the Yale University Art Gallery by Cathleen Chaffee, now curator at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. The museum will present a full schedule of related public programs that will serve to enhance and amplify the experience of the exhibition. Among programs are a July 26 talk by the exhibition's curator, Cathleen Chafee, Ph.D.; a September 20 talk by artist Ben Schonzeit whose work Giummo is in the exhibition; an October 25 talk by Charles A. Riley II, Ph.D. on the representation of reality in the arts; and three lunchtime talks about the exhibition by Docent Riva Ettus-August 14, September 18 and October 23). Additionally, the museum is screening Chuck Close: Close Up each day at 11 a.m., 12 p.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. The lunchtime talks and the screenings are free with museum admission.

For further information or to register for programs, call (516) 484-9337 or log onto nassaumuseum.org/events.

Nassau County Museum of Art is located at 1 Museum Drive in Roslyn Harbor, just off Northern Boulevard, Route 25A, two traffic lights west of Glen Cove Road. The museum is open Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Docent-led tours of the exhibition are offered at 2 p.m. each day; tours of the mansion are offered each Saturday at 1 p.m.; meet in the lobby, no reservations needed. Tours are free with museum admission. Family art activities and family tours are offered Sundays from 1 pm; free with museum admission. Call (516) 484-9338, ext. 12 to inquire about group tours. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors (62 and above) and $4 for students with ID and children aged 4 to 12. Members and children under 4 are admitted free. The Museum Store is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Call (516) 484-9337 for current exhibitions, events, days/times and directions or log onto nassaumuseum.org.

Duane Hanson
Man in Chair with Beer, 1973
Fiberglass and polyester resin, oil paint, and mixed media
Overall: 39 x 42 x 65 inches, approximately life-sized
Yale University Art Gallery
Gift of Richard Brown Baker, B.A. 1935

John Baeder
Stardust Motel, 1977
Oil on canvas
Unframed: 58 x 70 inches Framed: 60 1/2 x 72 1/4 x 2 9/16 inches
Yale University Art Gallery
Richard Brown Baker, B.A. 1935, Collection

Malcolm Morley
America's Queen of Opera, 1971
Oil on canvas 60 x 48 inches
Yale University Art Gallery
Gift of Gilbert H. Kinney, B.A. 1953, M.A. 1954

Robert Cottingham
Orph, (one print in a set of ten in a 2009 portfolio), 1972
Color lithograph
Image: 19 15/16 x 29 15/16 inches; Sheet: 23 7/8 x 33 15/16 inches
Yale University Art Gallery
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Samuel S. Mandel, M.D.