Too True to Be Good. Il problema della somiglianza nell’arte contemporanea

The last forty years have witnessed an ever-growing production of three-dimensional realistic images in art. Artists such as Paul Thek, Bruce Nauman, Duane Hanson and, more recently, Maurizio Cattelan, Huang Yong Ping, Robert Gober, Charles Ray, John Isaacs, Ron Mueck, Tomoaki Suzuki, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, have been using traditional (wax) or innovative materials (silicone, fiberglass, and polyester resins) and techniques, as well as taxidermized animals, to create sculptures and installations showing an extreme albeit ambiguous resemblance to their models. Such a trend has become a key feature of two-dimensional images as well, blurring the border between painting, photography and digital art. This new kind of “hyper-realism” seems to combine the tradition of mimetic sculpture, the sideshow fascination of wax figures, and the current attraction for photo-realistic manipulations, in a way that defies established critical criteria. This particular kind of deceptive images challenges the traditional ideas of «mimesis» and «representation», which are both based on the possibility of drawing a distinction between copies and originals; it moreover addresses the very status of the “image”, which can be called image only insofar it is distinguishable from its referent. Nevertheless – as both the continental and the analytical aesthetics have effectively underlined –, similarity and resemblance are far from being obvious and self-evident notions: they are on the contrary highly problematic concepts. This issue of «Piano B» wants to critically explore this constellation of problems, inviting scholars to investigate the different issues connected with the extensive use of mimetic strategies in the contemporary art practices.