Sure realist painting is always in and out of fashion, it makes we wonder, is it the fashion that defines a "times" art or is has simplicity become learned. What I mean by this is that the imagery of today has become increasingly simplified. The youth of my parents was full of crafted labouriously created works of realist representation. Today a lot of visual art seems to be..for lack of a better description, ipod art. Simplification seems to be enough for us to understand, ie a shape of a body seems as good as painting of a bodies every nook and cranny. So is it because we have become more intelligent, or less visual? either way our visual cues have changed.