Disrupted Realism - by John Seed (Hardcover)

About the Book

The first book to survey the works of 38 contemporary painters who are "disrupting" figurative painting with technology- and memory-inspired alterations.

Book Synopsis

Disrupted Realism takes an in-depth look at the works of contemporary painters who are challenging and reshaping the tradition of Realism, helping art lovers, collectors, and artists approach and understand this compelling new phenomenon.

• Includes the works of 38 artists whose paintings respond to the subjectivity and disruptions of modern experience.
• Six sections lay out and analyze common themes: "Toward Abstraction," "Disrupted Bodies," "Emotions and Identities," "Myths and Visions," "Patterns, Planes, and Formations," and "Between Painting and Photography."
• Interviews with each artist offer additional insight into some of the most incisive and relevant paintings being created today.

Widely published author and blogger John Seed, who believes that we are "the most distracted society in the history of the world," has selected artists he sees as visionaries in the developing Realism movement. The artists' impulses toward disruption are as individual as the artists themselves, but all share the need to include perception and emotion in their artistic process.

Review Quotes

"I consider John Seed as the Anthony Bourdain of the art world. Traveling and taking us on a journey of visual feasts for our eyes and imaginations". - Sue Greenwood (art dealer)

"John Seed is a diamond in a coal pile, a treasure." - Dave Hickey (author and critic)

"The best thing about "Disrupted Realism" is that it doesn't focus on facile representation. Instead, it centers on the opposite--that something remarkable happens when the so-called "real" is smeared, blurred, broken, battered, or even just a bit bruised." - Anne Harris (artist)

The visceral impact of the artist's hand is taking center stage within the widening circle of representational art. John Seed astutely frames Disrupted Realism as a movement, which it is, in every sense of the word. - Stanka Kordic (artist)

About the Author

John Seed is an artist and curator known for his HuffingtonPost Arts blog. Seed has written for many publications, including Art Ltd., Arts of Asia, Catamaran, and Hyperallergic.com, and has appeared in the Google Arts and Culture series Name That Art.