Museology and transcendence in William Fisk’s hyperrealism

Abstract

The essay develops the thesis that the hyperrealist painting of visual artist William Fisk, transcendently translates the ontology of the contemporary museum described in Peter Sloterdijk’s aesthetic theory. To this end, a unique case study is carried out through the analysis of two works by the Canadian painter. The epistemological approach used was Heidegger’s hermeneutics. In its conclusions, the essay highlights that both oil paintings would represent a museology typical of Sloterdijk’s aesthetics, in the sense that they would reflect –in reference to the idea of vintage as the key to Fisk’s painting, a sort of earthly heaven for surplus objects. Likewise, he emphasizes that the transcendence experienced in Fisk’s paintings seems to be especially due to the luxury of details with which the brands and logos of the objects are painted, icons that transport us back in time to an era in which we were also us, but surely not the same as we are today.