Subway, from "Urban Landscapes III"
Estes is a pioneer in Photorealism, a postwar artistic style characterized by highly detailed or "hyperrealistic" images rendered with extreme precision and detachment. New York features prominently in Estes’s oeuvre; its empty streets, shop windows, and imposing corporate architecture allow him to reduce compositional elements to their most basic geometric forms and to concentrate on the effects of light on reflective glass and metal surfaces. To create his images, Estes combines multiple photographs taken from various angles. In Subway, Estes captures the play of light and shadow, positive and negative space, and textural variations, as well as the contrast between the rigid, cool surfaces of the subway and the colorful and expressionist graffiti marks. His screenprints are remarkably complex; Estes worked from gouache and acrylic templates, which he then photographed and used to create multiple stencils.
Artwork Details
- Title: Subway, from "Urban Landscapes III"
- Series/Portfolio: Urban Landscapes III
- Artist: Richard Estes (American, born 1932)
- Printer: Michael Domberger (German, born 1940)
- Publisher: Parasol Press Ltd.
- Date: 1981
- Medium: Screenprint
- Dimensions: image: 14 x 20 in. (35.6 x 50.8 cm)
sheet: 19 11/16 x 27 9/16 in. (50 x 70 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: John B. Turner Fund, 1981
- Object Number: 1984.1099.1
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
More Artwork
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.