Art History: Scape
Richard Estes
By George Sugden 10AM
Contents Page 1: Introduction to Scape Art. Page 2: Richard Estes Page 3-5: Works by Richard Estes Page5: Conclusion Page6: Bibliography
Introduction to Scape Art Scape art is an artist’s own reproduction of an area of scenery. The most common and well known form of Scape art is Landscape; paintings, sketches and photos that are usually of the countryside or areas of natural beauty such as waterfalls or mountains. However there are many other forms of Scape art. Other forms include Cityscapes – depictions of urban areas, Cloudscapes – depictions of clouds, weather formations and atmospheric conditions, Seascapes – depictions of oceans and beaches and finally Riverscapes - which depict rivers or creeks. So a piece of scape art does not have to be of rolling hills or of fields of golden wheat it could be of any scenery natural or manmade. A piece of Scape art could be created by almost any medium, Any medium that would allow the artist to give a sense of depth and perspective to their work. Also pieces of Scape art could be created using different styles such as Abstract, Impressionism; the style used by artists such as Monet and Van Gough and, the style in which my chosen artist works with and the style I will be focusing on – Realism and Photorealism. Realism is a style of painting in which an artist reproduces an exact copy of a piece of scenery, as opposed to Impressionism, which is an artist’s interpretation of its subject. Often from a distance or a glance pieces of photorealistic artwork look like high resolution photographs but if you look closer you can see the “picture” is actually a painting.
An example of a Photorealistic piece of work.
My chosen artist, Richard Estes was considered as one of the founders of the international Photorealist movement. Estes focuses on recreating Cityscapes exactly as they would look in a photograph. His work mainly consists of clean, reflective and man-made or inanimate subjects. Other artists in the realist and photorealistic movement were Edward Hopper, the American artist which painted the famous picture of the downtown bar. And Ralph Goings who painted the diner you can see below.
1
Richard Estes Richard Estes was born on the 14th May 1936 in Kewanee, Illinois. At an early age, Richards family moved to Chicago. After graduating school he studied fine arts at The School of the Fine Art Institute of Chicago. He frequently studied and found inspiration from realist painters such as Edgar Degas, Edward Hopper and Thomas Deakins. After completing his course, in 1956, Estes moved to New York and worked as a graphic artists for various magazine publishers and advertising agencies. During this period he painted in his spare time. By 1966, Estes had the financial resources to devote himself to painting full-time. His early works were snapshots of city dwellers engaged in everyday life. However in 1967 Estes begin to paint storefronts, streets and buildings in Manhattan. These paintings almost always included crisp metallic colours and vast amounts of reflections.. Then a year later Estes held his first solo Exhibition in New York. In 1971 Estes earned a National Council for the Arts Fellowship (The U.S.A‘s highest cultural honour awarded to artists whose work has contributed greatly to the country’s cultural heritage). In 1991, Estes was awarded the MECA (Maine College of Art) award for achievement as a visual artist. Estes’ work has been exhibited across America and around the world in Galleries such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York as well of the Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan. His work is currently on display in the Marlborough Gallery in New York, close to where he lives and works.
2
Works By Richard Estes Estes is a Photorealistic painter, he focuses on making his works as realistic as possible. During his career, Estes painted mainly cityscapes however, near the end of his career he began to paint seascapes of the coast around Spain and glacial formations in the Antarctic. Estes worked by simply walking around with a camera and taking photos of images or scenarios that struck him as being different or interesting. He would then go back to his studio where he would spend days, weeks and months perfecting his paintings. Below is a mixed selection of his most well known work, work that I believe shows particular talent and works that stood out to me.
34th Street, Manhattan, Looking East Painting details: This painting was painted using oils on a square canvas 231.14 cm x 231.14 cm. It was completed in 1979 and is currently on display in the Marlborough Gallery, New York. I chose this as my first painting to analyse because it shows great perspective, something that is key in any piece of landscape work. The main subject in the painting is the street, which goes off right into the distance to the vanishing point. The roofs of the buildings also lead to the same vanishing point, as shown in the diagram to the left. I believe the dramatic high sided buildings are what makes the piece stand out, as this painting is on a canvas over 6ft 6in tall, the buildings would tower over you as you came close. If the buildings did not show perspective then the piece would look obscure, unrealistic and not have the same affect on people. This piece also stood out to me because when you look at it you feel almost as if your there in the street. This is exactly the effect Estes wanted to have on people viewing his work. He wanted to make his work so realistic that anyone looking at it would feel like they were right there in the picture. 3
Telephone Booths: Painting details: This work was painted using Acrylic paints on a masonite “board” 122cm x 175.3 cm. This piece was completed in 1967 and is currently on display in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. This is the piece in Estes’ collection that stood out most to me and made me choose him as the subject for my essay. The first time I saw this painting I thought it was a photograph, but as I looked closer I saw it was in fact a painting. The part of the painting that memorised me the most were the creases in the women’s clothes and the reflections on the booths. Reflections are usually the focal point in most of Estes’ work. Estes tries to capture the crisp, bright reflections that occur in the city. I believe he tries to recapture reflections in order to give an insight of the world around the subject. Doing this enables him to “fit” more into his paintings; the subject, and the world around it. He has been able to create such a realistic piece of work by using only pastel, cool, metallic colours.
A piece of work in which Estes uses reflections as the focal point of his work.
Antarctica IV: Painting details: Antarctica is one of Estes’ more recent work, it was painted in 2007 using oil paints on a canvas 37 cm by 80cm. This piece is on display in the Marlborough Gallery, New York. More recently Estes has begun to paint pictures of Glaciers and Glacial waterways in Alaska and Antarctica. 4
Although Estes here has changed his subject from buildings to glaciers, vast reflections still occur heavily in his work. He uses cool, crisp, and pastel colours to emphasise the nature of his subject. One thing that occurs in all of Estes’ Antarctic work is boats, all of his Antarctic landscapes are views from boats, he never just paints the landscape on its own. I believe he does this to make a contrast between natural and manmade, or to make the view look as realistic as possible. As Estes was a photorealist painter, I believe he did not want to paint a picture of a view that doesn’t exist, so, he included any objects that were in view when he saw the perfect landscape.
Conclusion: Although in his early seventies, Estes continues to paint both Landscape and Cityscape paintings in his studio in New York. His work and style has inspired many artists around the world, and it has shown me that a reflection can be just as important as the subject itself and, more so that a reflection could be the subject of a painting. It has also shown me the importance of having perspective in my work, without it my landscapes and cityscapes alike would look obscure and unrealistic.
5
Bibliography Here is a list of the sources I used in my research: Art Prints:
The House I stayed at during my Holiday had a print of one of Estes’ work.
Books:
The Art Book for Children (Book 1) – Published by Phaidon
Internet Sites:
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Estes www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/estes_richard www.metroartwork.com/richard-estes-biography-artwork-m-70 www.artnet.com/artist/5895/richard-estes www.marlboroughgallery.com/Grfx_Pages/Estes www.museothyssen.org/thyssen/exposiciones/WebExposiciones/2007/Estes