Published in Digital Creativity, Vol. 10, No. 4, 1999, Swets and Zeitlinger, p. 215 - 227. ISSN 1462-6268. This paper was presented to the CADE'99 Conference, Teeside University, April 1999

Abstract

3D computer graphics has been under-used by fine artists. This paper explores some of the possible reasons for this, and also some of the possible attractions of 3D. The rigid depiction of three-space, as performed so accurately by the camera, had been a goal of painters since the Renaissance, but in the twentieth century a host of factors led to its subversion. Only in the sixties and in the US did a photorealist painting become popular. The author suggests that linear perspective has been seen as a tyranny, but the time has come to re-evaluate and liberate it through 3D computer graphics as a medium for fine art. The author's own work using ray-tracing software is described.

7,000 words