Lipking’s skill lies in his ability to probe in and around his subject. Realism has been misunderstood through most of the twentieth century as an art of imitation. In truth, when practiced by a painter like Jeremy Lipking, realist painting is a powerful creative force. Many viewers are drawn to his art thinking that it looks just like a photograph. Actually Lipking’s vision is the opposite of what a camera does. A photograph tends to flatten an image, reducing all relationships of color and shade to a stiff mechanical pattern. With a highly sensitive eye, he sees nuances of value and hue that the camera and most people can never see. Lipking’s true subject is his pictorial fluency. One can enter a pictorial world after seeing his paintings. Like all great realists, he has the ability to generate powerful fictions.