As a young Architecture student in the late 70s, I was briefly infatuated with the Hyperrealist movement.
They were a bunch of artists and sculptors who would create paintings and sculptures which were not merely realistic, but which actually took realism a step further. Thus, for example, skin tones were not merely the real skin tone, they were an idealised 'real' skin tone (if you get my meaning!) I know some folk struggled with the notion that a skin tone should only be a skin tone and needn't be anything more, but...okay, I was 18 and a bit 'artsy'!
Seems to me that current digital art and CG seem to be regenerating the ideas they had and can now allow for the creation of incredible, utterly convincing 'un-realities' which we see in movies and videos all the time.
So...
watching Augusta in HD for the first time this year, I am struck that it is, in fact, a hyperrealistic golf course. An ideal golf course, a concept of a golf course, a mind's eye notion of a golf course which somewhat miraculously has been made real through the hand of man.
I struggle to think of examples of a more unnatural golf course than Augusta, yet I still find it as compellingly attractive and as pleasing to the eye as any Repton or Brown landscape.
I'd still be happier if there was any actual MacKenzie left, but I'm definitely mellowing in my appreciation. Yippee for HD!
FBD.