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Richard Estes is one of the founders of the photo-realism movement and his work is most often characterised by crisply executed and intricately detailed images of the urban environment.

Born in Kewanee, Illinois, the Estes family moved to Chicago, where he later studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After finishing his degree in 1956, he moved to New York City and worked for the next ten years as a graphic artist. During this period, Estes painted in his spare time and by 1966 he was able to devote himself entirely to his career as a fine artist.

From very early in his career, Estes was preoccupied with the materials of the built environment. He began to paint storefronts and buildings with large plate glass windows, always paying careful attention to the detailed reflections of the various polished surfaces. The paintings were based on the colour photographs he would take which captured the many layered, translucent nature of the reflections, which change depending on the lighting and the time of day. Cityscapes and strong geometric views of architecture are most often associated with Estes’ work and he has depicted scenes of Chicago, Paris, Venice, San Fransisco, Prague, Barcelona, London, and Florence. However, New York has always been his greatest inspiration.

Many of these locations, and most of all New York, are included in the Urban Landscapes screenprint portfolios. These three portfolios were executed between 1972 and 1982. These individual images each show Estes’s ability to render exacting, geometric lines as well as his preoccupation with evocative urban settings.

New York is also the setting for two monumental screenprints, ‘D-Train’ and ‘Holland Hotel’, which are both stunning examples of his highly polished technique. These are the only two screenprints Estes executed on such a large scale and the undertaking was considerable, both for the artist and the printers. 

The complexity of Estes’s images required an almost unprecedented number of screens, one for each colour and tonal modulation, which made the proofing process extremely involved and time consuming. The result is one of acute observation and photographic accuracy, exhibiting Estes’ mastery of the medium.

Estes work can be seen in major collections around the world, including the Art Institue of Chicago, Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Neue Galerie der Stadt Aachen, Ludwig Collection, Aachen, Germany; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.