surealism, is realism with a twist; otherwise it would have been realism.
So I think its wrong to say : Photosurrealism is the new photorealism.
Surreal is an opposite of real, so surrealism can’t be realism.
For example HDR photo’s can be a form Photo surrealism, but then as those photo’s are edited they are no longer the real original thing.
Professional news reporters often claim to never edit their photo’s. ( the news shouldnt be photoshopped, as the news shouldnt be altered).
But in art the borders often a bit vague, because paintings even the good realistic ones are still not photo’s.
An artist can attempt however to go for as much realism as he is able to paint / draw etc. (he’s into realism)
While other artist intentionally dont want to be so realistic, but till a certain degree work realistic.
So that things are still recognizable (ea not modern Art like cubism, minimalism etc).
As example an artist can paint things more vague like in a dream, alter colors of shadows and objects, work with different line styles etc. Think of works of van Gogh, Monet etc they intentionally didnt paint the world in realism.
Or think of Salvadore Dahli (you should look him up if you never heard of him).
Its a bit complex though, because you got to take the skill of the artist into account too,
People who cant paint aren’t by definition great surreal painters, no they are just bad at painting.
Time also plays a role.
Portraits from Rembrandt where intended to be real good looking paintings of his subjects.
But if you visit a museum, you’ll notice that all those faces have a romantic lightning /look to them.
And for sure his customers would have liked such portraits, and might have rejected some face abnormalities (skars etc).
So he painted them realistic, but nicer looking then real.
In art history you also see sometimes they go book to paint ‘romantic realism’. For a long time Romantic’s where money makers in Art.
Do you need a genius to create such Art ?.
Well if you work with paint yes, or else i’d compare you with someone who can’t paint.
If you work with Blender… well i think deforming something that was good looking and that came from blendswap… that probably wouldn’t require you to be a genius. I think to become an Genius Artist, you first need to sell your work for real prices; then if other people call you an artist for what you made, then you probably starting to be one…
I’d like to add a rule for “good” artist that they are multidisciplinary ea can work with paint, and sculpt stone, draw, ink etc.
They typically experiment with their tools on different materials. But that not a real rule its just something i use.