Richard Estes: The Urban Landscape

This is the first book on one of the leading figures in the triumphant revival of realism in American painting. The work of Richard Estes is appealing both for the dazzling technical prowess with which he renders the myriad details of the street and for the way these elements are composed into a distinctive aesthetic variant of the city view.

It is intriguing to find in the work influences of both abstract painting and the realist tradition and to see how Estes has departed significantly from the mainstream of contemporary 'super-realism.'

The artist's own attitudes toward realism and abstraction are revealed in an interview with John Arthur, director of the Boston University Gallery. Their lengthy and fascinating conversation touches on Estes's evolution and focuses especially on the way in which he develops a painting. Studies and details of the work document this painstaking process.

All of the paintings are reproduced in color in this large format, conveying a true sense of their subtleties and complexities.