These incredible works of art will make you look twice

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Photorealism -- the process of replicating a photograph through a different medium -- was once considered a fad, but the 1970s arts movement has stood the test of time.

Now, nearly five decades after the term was first coined by art dealer Louis K. Meisel, the works of some of the movement's most influential artists are being displayed together at "From Lens to Eye To Hand: Photorealism 1969 to Today," a new exhibition at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York.

The show features 40 paintings and 33 works, including "Hotel Empire" by Richard Estes, one of the fathers of the movement, as well as more recent contributions from the likes of Yigal Ozeri, Raphaella Spence and Bertrand Meniel.

"'From Lens to Hand' assembles key works from major public and private collections to survey a profoundly influential yet under-recognized art movement; the more than seventy paintings and works on paper from the 1970s to today illuminate the very definition of photorealism since its founding," says Terrie Sultan, Director of Parrish Art Museum.

Although photorealism originally evolved from pop art , it quickly became an independent movement of its own and has evolved considerably over the years.

Artist and writer Richard Kalina believes the art genre's endurance its due to its simplicity and consistency .

"What photorealism conspicuously lacks is pretension. This is in direct opposition to academic art of all kinds (conservative or avant garde)," he writes in an essay published in the exhibition catalog.

"Photorealism has survived because it has remained undiluted and conceptually coherent, but also because it has managed to stay consistently compelling."

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