The work of Richard Estes, a distinguished artist at the age of 91, is no longer considered a part of the ongoing artistic discourse. However, back in the late 1960s, his paintings instantly established themselves as canonical pieces. Among the photorealists, who were painters that sought to replicate the appearance of photographs, Estes was the most captivating and enigmatic figure. His work seemed to silently prophesize a future in which photography would dominate the tangible world, blurring the lines between illusion and reality.
Estes pursued the study of fine arts at the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the early 1950s before relocating to New York City. In the Big Apple, he worked as a graphic designer for prominent magazines and advertising agencies. During his spare time, he began to paint shop fronts, diners, and signs, using photographs as his primary sources of inspiration.
What fascinated Estes was the delicate balance between transparency and opacity. He became a master of capturing the interplay between the weathered sidewalk and the modern corporate headquarters, creating reflections that transformed Manhattan’s rational grid (reminiscent of Mondrian’s “Broadway Boogie-Woogie”) into an enthralling funhouse of optical reverberations, featuring glass, chrome, and lustrous car hoods.
Garry Winogrand once expressed that his reason for taking photographs was to discover how things appeared when photographed. At first, such a statement may not seem helpful in conveying artistic motive. However, it becomes more insightful when we consider how photographs undermine our preconceived notions and challenge our mental biases.
While Estes painted subjects that street photographers like Winogrand and Lee Friedlander would have loved to capture, his approach differed. Winogrand and Friedlander used their cameras to capture the city’s fast-paced, off-kilter energy. Estes, on the other hand, was drawn to a more tranquil aesthetic. He sought to slow down the city and imbue it with a sense of order, symmetry, and silence. In this regard, Estes brought the clarity and geometries of Piero della Francesca’s Tuscan art to late 20th-century Gotham.
The painting in question, which is on display at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art in Richmond, is both characteristic of Estes and highly unusual. It exhibits Estes’ signature symmetry, reflections, and deep perspective lines. However, it deviates from his typical subject matter of New York, depicting instead the streets of Paris.
The painting captures Paris on a gray day, where light harmonizes with absence, and nothing dares to be ostentatious. What mesmerizes the viewer is the striking contrast between the solid, light-absorbing stone of the buildings and the subtly understated reflections emanating from parked cars (one might spot a couple of Citroëns!). The juxtaposition of solidity and permanence with the intangible and illusory creates a captivating harmony.
Upon closer inspection, one realizes that the entire painting is composed of various shades and tones of dun-colored paint, meticulously applied in discrete patches. Estes skillfully combines sharply defined outlines with the ethereal mirage of reflections. Take note of the sunspots and cloudy smears in the lower half of the right window. Additionally, you may spot the car parked across the street from the others, with Estes leaving his signature on its license plate.
Photographs are impartial, capturing everything that falls within their frame, including mundane objects such as light switches, shopping lists, dust, and clutter. It was precisely this indiscriminate objectivity and the surreal poetry it evoked that fascinated street photographers in the postwar era.
In contrast, Estes was all about intentionality. He was highly selective in his artistic process. Around the time he created this painting, he began using multiple photographs as references, often merging different perspectives into a new, synthesized image. He ruthlessly omitted anything that didn’t align with his vision.
However, Estes also seemed to embrace the confusion that reflections created. Particularly in urban settings, reflections compelled the viewer’s mind to actively decipher between illusion and reality. They reintroduced complexity into Estes’ carefully crafted order, adding an element of intrigue and fascination.
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