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Lot Essay
Gourmet Treats is a complex, highly detailed example of the famous Urban Landscapes that Estes began in 1967. These works are rooted in his earlier Car Reflections paintings, which were based on photographs produced by aiming a camera down into the windshields of cars to capture the distorted images of faces and buildings. In Gourmet Treats, Estes expands his view, encompassing the popular junction of New York streets and avenues that surround the Astor Place subway stop. Here, he continues his fascination with reflections and light distortions. Meanwhile, Estes reveals his interest in signs, storefronts and common scenes that relates his work to that of his Pop Art contemporaries. With its near-desertedness despite the midday setting, Gourmet Treats also conveys qualities of urban silence, poetic contemplation, and timelessness experienced in Edward Hopper's greatest achievements.
The work incorporates Estes' favorite subject: New York City. His paintings, though based on direct photographic recording, reveal the artist's passion for the everyday visual experience of the City. As John Perreault wrote of Estes' work: "The virtual absence of people allows the artist, and the viewer, to concentrate on the streetscape itself: the architecture, the storefronts, the street furniture, the parked cars, the signage, and the reflections within reflections that compound space and crystallize the unpolluted, dustless, almost palpable New York City light. In many ways, Estes' New York is an ideal city: always fall or always spring, no slush or grime. And everything is in miraculous, preternatural focus" (J. Perreault, Richard Estes, in L. K. Meisel, Richard Estes: The Complete Paintings 1966-1985, New York, 1986, p. 11). Gourmet Treats is a reconfiguration of the city into a magical place, rich in optical splendor.
The work incorporates Estes' favorite subject: New York City. His paintings, though based on direct photographic recording, reveal the artist's passion for the everyday visual experience of the City. As John Perreault wrote of Estes' work: "The virtual absence of people allows the artist, and the viewer, to concentrate on the streetscape itself: the architecture, the storefronts, the street furniture, the parked cars, the signage, and the reflections within reflections that compound space and crystallize the unpolluted, dustless, almost palpable New York City light. In many ways, Estes' New York is an ideal city: always fall or always spring, no slush or grime. And everything is in miraculous, preternatural focus" (J. Perreault, Richard Estes, in L. K. Meisel, Richard Estes: The Complete Paintings 1966-1985, New York, 1986, p. 11). Gourmet Treats is a reconfiguration of the city into a magical place, rich in optical splendor.