Photorealism developed out of Pop Art in the late 1960s and early 1970s, at a time when the flood of images in the media was experiencing an enormous upswing. Photorealism in painting is seen as a conscious counter-movement to abstract and non-representational art, and painting competes with photography through the frequent imitation of photographs. In a meticulous painting technique, colouristic means are used to create the greatest possible and deceptively real reality in the tiniest details of a motif, so that what is painted suggests that it is reality itself.
Gerhard Richter 
