Using composite digital photography, self-taught artist Bertrand Meniel incorporates more detail into each of his cityscapes than any other Photorealist to date.

Photorealism is a genre of painting that developed in the United States and Europe using high-resolution photography as its primary source material. Embracing digital photography perhaps more than any other artist working in this genre, Bertrand Meniel is able to incorporate an astonishing amount of detail into his renderings of cityscapes in New York City, Miami, and Paris. Using a variety of photographs of his chosen subject, he manipulates an image to perfection, focusing simultaneously on the foreground and background by combining hundreds of shots on a computer screen.

His choice to depict iconic American scenes in his paintings, particularly those associated with the “American Way of Life,” reflects not just a technical mastery of Photorealism but a deep emotional connection to the culture that captivated him during his youth. His unique perspective, influenced by French artistic traditions and shaped by exposure to American pop culture, allows him to capture in his art the essence of what may be best described as the “New York State of Mind."

Primarily self-taught and with no preliminary experimental, developmental, or student work, French-born Bertrand Meniel (1961–) mastered techniques and skills in photorealism that normally require a lifetime and by 1996 was creating works with powerful, distinctive, and original imagery.

Louis Meisel is an American author, art collector, and dealer, as well as a pro­ponent of the Photorealist art movement. He has contributed to four volumes documenting the genre, numerous monographs, and he continues to organize international museum exhibitions for leading Photorealist artists.

Otto Letze is the director emeritus of the Institute for Cultural Exchange in Tübingen, Germany. He is the author and editor of numerous essays, catalogues, and books on international art, and culture.

Terrie Sultan is an independent curator, cultural consultant, and Principal Museum Strategist for Art Museum Strategies at Hudson Ferris. She was the director of the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York, as well as the director of The Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston in Texas.

Artist's Statement
Bertrand Meniel

Foreword
Louis K. Meisel

Introduction: Bertrand Meniel and His Photorealistic Artworks
Otto Letze

Bertrand Meniel: The Observation of Things
Terrie Sultan

Plates

Acknowledgements
Chronology
Exhibitions
Collections
Bibliography
Photography Credits

"Photorealist painting, while sharing a striking proximity to photography, goes beyond mere imitation to achieve a unique artistic dimension. The idea of imitation would be, in this context, reductive, as it implies an intrinsic degradation, with the original always considered superior to its reproduction. It is in this awareness that lies the challenge and the very essence of Photorealism. The multitude of photos taken, their recombination, and then my completed painting work to create a fiction. This fiction is a kind of lie that prompts a reflection on possibilities, a questioning of the contingency of things."

—Bertrand Meniel, "Artist's Statement"