Hello and welcome to The Anchor's Art column! This week's installment will be on an artist by the name of Richard Estes. Richard Estes is a photorealist (a movement of art which contains paintings so realistic they look like photos...seriously, look it up). Recently his life's work was compiled and curated into one single art exhibit at the American Museum of Art in D.C.
I attended it a couple weeks prior to this article... these are my observations.
Before I address the exhibit itself it's important for you have some background information. Richard Estes attended the Chicago Institute of Art and named some of his major influences as Edward Hopper, Thomas Eakins, and Edgar Degas. With a strong art background in realism he worked as a graphic artist in New York and painted on the side. After gaining popularity as an accomplished photorealist, he moved to Spain and began to paint full time. The American Art Museum decided to create this exhibit because of Estes' subjects. The American Art Museum is devoted to depict American society through artists' interpretations of it. Many of the museum's exhibits consist of folk art, American landscapes, or even politically based contemporary art. All of these subjects address and display America through art. Estes' subjects depict contemporary urban life. He portrays these scenes more realistically than artists ever could before. This is why Estes' work was selected for exhibition.
At around fifty paintings (each at least four by five feet) the collection was far from small. The pieces were arranged in chronological order so that the visitors might see Estes' developing style. While the first of his works seemed loose and almost impressionistic, his style quickly became far more detailed and tighter. Each piece contained a strong sense of motion. This illusion of motion was effectively used by harnessing his sometimes loose style to draw the viewer's eye to one point of the painting. Each image also had a mood. Depending of his choice of color, he was able to successfully communicate a sort of feeling to the painting that only increased its sense of realism. Estes paintings always depict day times scenes, filled with light and are consistently full of geometric spaces. The collection felt very personal and I left feeling as if I knew Estes through his work.
Below are some of my personal favorites and two links to the online gallery and an archive of his entire life's work.
Exhibit: http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/estes/
More on Richard Estes: http://www.artnet.com/usernet/awc/awc_thumbnail.asp?aid=139829&gid=139829&works_of_art=1&cid=15766
Richard Estes, Diner, 1971, oil on canvas, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Museum purchase 1977. © Richard Estes, courtesy Marlborough Gallery, New York. Photo by Lee Stalsworth opyright Richard Estes, courtesy Marlborough Gallery, New York
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