Richard Estes’ Realism is an exhibit consisting of a variety of paintings of various places around the world. The exhibit could be seen at the Portland Museum of Art from May 22, 2014, through September 7, 2014, before it became an online exhibit on the Smithsonian American Art Museum website. The exhibit is made up of paintings solely created by Richard Estes. The exhibit features paintings of urban scenes from various cities and countries. Estes' 50 years of work as an artist is showcased in this exhibit.
The exhibit contains photorealist paintings. "Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium" (Wikipedia). Throughout all of the works in Richard Estes’ Realism, Estes perfectly portrays the scene on the canvas, thus at first glance, fooling the viewer into thinking it is a photograph.
Richard Estes was born on May 14, 1932, in Kewanee, IL. Although still living, his legacy lies in his precise detail and invisible brushwork. Estes studied Fine Art at the Art Institute of Chicago.
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After graduating, he moved to New York City. He spent the next 10 years working as a commercial artist for publishers in Spain and New York. He spent the next 10 years working as a commercial artist for publishers in Spain and New York. In the 1960's, Estes began to paint using Photorealism. He paints urban landscapes, typically removing all people from the setting. He perfects the detail in his imagery by making great use of reflections. In the 1970s, he was selected three different times to represent the U.S. at the Venice Bienniale. He later began painting landscapes of other places he visited, such as Chicago, Paris, and Florence. Estes created a series of "seascapes" during the 1990s, typically portraying the coast of Maine, which is where he currently lives (Wikipedia, artnet, and RoGallery). Richard Estes’ Realism makes use of the oil on canvas technique for all of the art displayed.
The choice to use oil on canvas is not random. Oil on canvas provides an increase of brightness in the image as opposed to the dullness of typical photo paper. The exhibit's art makes use of reflections and mirror images. These methods are apparent in Estes' Escalator. He portrays the view of looking down an escalator. So, he had to reflect the other side of the escalator on the shiny metal surface, creating an endless loop of reflections. Estes uses reflections to bring the water to life in his Antarctica. He creates the illusion of the sun hitting off the water, which creates light and a reflection of the snow-covered mountain. This attention to detail is what made all of Richard Estes’ paintings come to
life. To create his life-life painting, Richard Estes took multiple photos of his subject. He would then crop, shrink, and adjust each photo to his liking. He would layer and merge the images together at multiple viewpoints, creating his final image. He would then recreate this image using oil on canvas technique, using precise detail and accuracy. Estes’ paintings are treated as historical documents. He painted images before major evolutions in society. For example, Diner shows old school photo booth with rotary phones. In Estes’ Brooklyn Bridge, upon close examination, one will notice The World Trade Center in the distance. Richard Estes' Realism takes the viewers on a trip back in time. Estes used open composition to create vast scenery. His Beaver Dam Pond, Acadia National Park, depicts a large land mass stretching across the entire canvas, with each end unseen to the viewer. This gives a sense of size to his work, despite being painted on small surface. Believe it or not, Estes had a “hide and seek” element to his work. Incorporated into some of his paintings, you can find his name incorporated into the scene. In Jone’s Diner, Estes’ name can be seen on the small, yellow “Leathercraft Supply Co.” sign attached to the side of the diner. In Estes’ Times Square, his name can be found on the left side of the painting, written on a small sign above a door. This technique adds a unique method of signing his paintings. Apparent in his work, Richard Estes had a passion for nature. He captures depicts living moments in a single painting. In Near Hunter's Beach, Acadia National Park, Estes’ brings the park to life. Fallen trees, blowing leaves, and tilted branches, create a sense of movement in the image. This can also be seen in Checkout. Estes drew a busy store in action. Paying customers, hearts hanging from the ceiling, and incredible use of reflection, turns the painting into a video. One can look at his work, and be put into the setting immediately. This gift is what makes Estes is a talented artist. Richard Estes was an innovator. He got the ball rolling for Photorealistic paintings (Smithsonian). His work captured live moments around world using incredible detail and precision. His ability to make a painting look like a photograph is apparent in Richard Estes’ Realism. This exhibit captured over 50 years of his hard work, and his legacy lives on in his mesmerizing paintings.
Surprisingly, fifty years later, artist John Sloan happen to meet all the qualifications Baudelaire has designed for Monsieur G— making urban life observations and drawing from memory. Sloan adopts and employs Baudelaire’s idea of urban watching and further expands it for an American audience. Born and raised in Philadelphia, John Sloan first begun his art career as a newspaper illustrator. After years of working, he developed his own artistic style and started making paintings and etchings. When he moved from Philadelphia to New York, he has found that city life scenes of great interest that he then started observing and making etchings for scenes of modern life. He was well-known and celebrated as the founder of the Ashcan School and was most celebrated for this urban genre scenes. (Lobel, Chapter1)
...hese repeated vertical lines contrast firmly with a horizontal line that divides the canvas almost exactly in half. The background, upper portion of the canvas, seems unchanging and flat, whereas the foreground and middle ground of the painting have a lot of depth to them.
When looking at the painting it gives us a glimpse of the past. It looks almost like a photograph. The fine detail from the building on the right with the statue on top. The citizens walking around.
Ivan Le Lorraine Albright was born in Chicago in 1897; he was the son of a painter that had previously studied under Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Albright’s father trained him form an early age to draw in the academic tradition, studying models and plaster casts. This along with his later enrollment in art schools provided Albright with the foundation for his finely crafted paintings.
... be the woman 's fitted blue dress with a lace trim around the collars and pleads laying vertically down the front. The three sewing pins in the shoulder and the rolled up sleeves also add to the dress. On the table I have already mentioned the spoon, but the details in the fruit as well leave an impression of realism. The way the apples shine, the shading on the peaches, the crumbs left on the table, and the rings in the onion slices all appear to be real enough you can reach out a grab them. The cloth Spencer painted draping half on half off the table showing the stitches in the fabric represent an exquisite component to the still life.
Artists are masters of manipulation. They create unimaginably realistic works of art by using tools, be it a paintbrush or a chisel as vehicles for their imagination to convey certain emotions or thoughts. Olympia, by Manet and Bierstadt’s Sierra Nevada Mountains both are mid nineteenth century paintings that provide the viewer with different levels of domain over the subject.
The first thing to notice about this painting is how incredibly involved and realistic the brushwork is. The couple’s faces are so delicately rendered. Every wrinkle is visible and every hair strand is in it’s place. The soft folds and patterns of their clothing, and the grain of the vertical boards on the house, are highly developed and reveal Wood’s incredible attention to detail. The man, especially, appears to be nearly photorealistic.
The first painting analyzed was North Country Idyll by Arthur Bowen Davis. The focal point was the white naked woman. The white was used to bring her out and focus on the four actual colored males surrounding her. The woman appears to be blowing a kiss. There is use of stumato along with atmospheric perspective. There is excellent use of color for the setting. It is almost a life like painting. This painting has smooth brush strokes. The sailing ship is the focal point because of the bright blue with extravagant large sails. The painting is a dry textured flat paint. The painting is evenly balanced. When I look at this painting, it reminds me of settlers coming to a new world that is be founded by its beauty. It seems as if they swam from the ship.
Though most works of art have some underlying, deeper meaning attached to them, our first impression of their significance comes through our initial visual interpretation. When we first view a painting or a statue or other piece of art, we notice first the visual details – its size, its medium, its color, and its condition, for example – before we begin to ponder its greater significance. Indeed, these visual clues are just as important as any other interpretation or meaning of a work, for they allow us to understand just what that deeper meaning is. The expression on a statue’s face tells us the emotion and message that the artist is trying to convey. Its color, too, can provide clues: darker or lighter colors can play a role in how we judge a piece of art. The type of lines used in a piece can send different messages. A sculpture, for example, may have been carved with hard, rough lines or it may have been carved with smoother, more flowing lines that portray a kind of gentleness.
Archibald Motley Jr. was born in 1891 in New Orleans. Ever since, Archibald was a child he had the desire to be an artist. His family moved to a Chicago neighborhood in the 1890’s, but the family would take frequent trips back to New Orleans in the summer. Later we find out that these two similar settings were the determining factor for Archibald’s paintings. He decided to study art at the Institute of Chicago and was recognized by being one of the few African American artists during that time.
From the creation of art to its modern understanding, artists have strived to perform and perfect a photo realistic painting with the use of complex lines, blend of colors, and captivating subjects. This is not the case anymore due to the invention of the camera in 1827, since it will always be the ultimate form of realism. Due to this, artists had the opportunities to branch away from the classical formation of realism, and venture into new forms such as what is known today as modern art. In the examination of two well known artists, Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock, we can see that the artist doesn’t only intend for the painting to be just a painting, but more of a form of telling a scene through challenging thoughts, and expressing of the artists emotion in their creation.
” Edward Hopper, a classic realist painter of the twentieth century, had a fascination for light. His plays on the mood of light stretch as a major theme throughout his works, and contribute to the intensifying effect he could inject into seemingly every day scenes. His works took a dramatic appeal through the “eerie stillness's” and lone figures sprinkled throughout his paintings. Although influenced by Edgar Degas and Edouard Maent, Edward Hopper easily added his own personal touches to the beautiful style of realism.1 Born in July of 1882 in New York, Hopper grew up interested in art and encouraged by his parents. After attending both the Correspondence School of Illustrating in New York City and the New York School of Art, Hopper experienced a shift in interest from illustrations to the fine arts1.
Another is the interesting set of images if found if the observer flips the painting over. Here in the left half of the painting there are two images, one of a puppet and an observer kneeling to view the show.
In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus defines beauty and the artist's comprehension of his/her own art. Stephen uses his esthetic theory with theories borrowed from St. Thomas Aquinas and Plato. The discourse can be broken down into three main sections: 1) A definitions of beauty and art. 2) The apprehension and qualifications of beauty. 3) The artist's view of his/her own work. I will explain how the first two sections of his esthetic theory relate to Stephen. Furthermore, I will argue that in the last section, Joyce is speaking of Stephen Dedalus and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as his art.
This exhibit was put on in a studio in Paris that was owned by the famous photographer Nadar and featured around 30 different Impressionist artists (Lewis 149). In the beginning of the impressionist 's “career” as impressionists, they were mocked and not always credited as real artists, but they accepted the name of Impressionist 's, turning the derogatory term into one to identify themselves with. The entire Impressionist art movement was “an unthinking form of naturalism” and also “… the fruitful renovation of the French schools…” (Lewis 23, 155). This oppression can be seen as synonymous with that of the actual oppressed people of France of which Karl Marx was calling to change their future. Impressionists took control of their own art and didn 't back down when mocked, they found the passion inside themselves. They were mocked since Impressionism was a shift of creativity that was now “…identified with the individual, not within the social…” (Lewis 26). When one looks at an impressionism painting from that period of time, the passion and emotions of the scene come through the painting causing the viewer to feel how the artist felt when they experienced this scene while painting