The catalog Extra Ordinary: Magic, Mystery and Imagination in American Realism aims to reexamine how magic realism is defined. The collection includes works by Gertrude Abercrombie, Ivan Albright, Paul Cadmus, Eldzier Cortor, Z. Vanessa Helder, Hughie Lee-Smith, Patsy Santo, Honoré Sharrer, Everett Spruce, Patrick Sullivan and many others.
Magic realism, unlike surrealism, is grounded in the real world, presenting fantastical elements as a part of daily life. Extra Ordinary works to define magic realism and organizes a diverse collection of artists into one style. The catalogue highlights artists who turned to the mysterious, supernatural and hyperreal to examine key social issues of the day. These artists embraced magic or fantasy not as a means to escape everyday reality but as a way to engage more directly with it.
The catalog Extra Ordinary: Magic, Mystery and Imagination in American Realism accompanies the exhibition of the same name at the Georgia Museum of Art. The exhibition will be available through June 13.
Extra Ordinary also features essays by curator Jeffrey Richmond-Moll and scholar Philip Eliasoph. It illustrates every work in the exhibition full page and in full color and includes many supplementary images.
