Illusions of Reality A MONA Moment By James May Curator Museum of Nebraska Art

Throughout the history of art many cultures and art movements have pursued the illusion of reality. The first notable success occurred during the Renaissance in Italy with the mastering of perspective. Illusionism is defined as the virtuoso use of pictorial techniques such as perspective and foreshortening to deceive the eye into taking that which is painted for what is real.

Another technique perfected by the Northern Europeans during the Renaissance was the meticulous painting of surface textures to make them appear real. Using disguised brushstrokes and mirror like surfaces the artist might portray a drop of water on the petal of a flower and fool the viewer into thinking it was real. This method of illusion was called trompe-l'oeil, or "fool the eye" by the French.

In the 1930s the Surrealist painters like Salvador Dali used Renaissance perspective and trompe-l'oeil to create their disturbing juxtapositions of reality and the dream world. More recently in the late 1960s an American movement, known variously as Photo Realism, resurrected this popular painting method using scenes of every day life.

The Museum of Nebraska Art has a number of exceptional works in its collection by Nebraska artists who work in the trompe-l'oeil tradition. You can see these works on MONA's website at monet.unk.edu/mona.

The paintings by Ernest Ochsner, Ed and Jane Dadey, or Avarice, by Peter Walkly exemplify the trompe-l'oeil technique. This same illusion can be seen in Robert Therien's Three Gazing Globes and Paul Otero's near photographic rendition in graphite, Portrait of Becky. In all cases the artist has used techniques discovered and explored by scientists and artists over the centuries.

This MONA moment was written by James May, curator of the Museum of Nebraska Art, and narrated by Ron Roth, Director