The painting...reveals the beginnings of the artist's concern with the depiction of reflecting surfaces and, compared with Estes's subsequent works, is relatively abstract. This abstraction is perhaps most evident in the cast shadow in the lower part of the painting and in the handling of the glass windows of the cockpit. In many of the artist's paintings of 1968 and 1969, large plate glass windows of store fronts and what is seen through them and what is reflected in them become the dominant theme. In the present painting, the airpane itself acts as the major reflecting surface with the right and the left sides offering the effect of a very high polish which tends to confuse or dissolve the solidity of the object. Whether the artist paints store fronts, escalators, subway car interiors, automobiles, or airplanes, his subject matter is involved in the urban environment and the technology which has both created it and resulted from it.
Richard Estes was born in Evanston, Illinois, in 1936 and from 1952 to 1956 he studied at the Art Institute of CHicago.
Source: Bulletin, September-October 1970.
Exhibition History"Arte Americana 1930-70," Lingotto, Turin, Italy, Jan. 8 - Mar. 31, 1992
"Reflections of Realism," Albuquerque Museum of Art, NM, Nov. 4, 1979 - Jan. 27, 1980
"XXXVI Venice Biennale, European Tour," United States exhibition sponsored by the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution and the United States Information Agency, Washington, D.C., organized by Walter Hopps, Director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., (circulated to: U.S.A. Pavillion, Venice, Italy, June 11 - Oct. 1, 1972; Hamburg Art Association, Germany, Nov. 30 - Jan. 3, 1973; The City Museum, Bonn, W. Germany, Jan. 10 - Feb. 14, 1973)
"Paintings and Sculpture Today," Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN, 1969
Published ReferencesLouis K. Meisel, PHOTOREALISM, Harry N. Abrams Inc., N.Y., ill. pl.504, p.232
DMAC Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1970, ill.
DOW JONES ANNUAL REPORT, 1983, Dow Jones and Company, color ill. p.9
LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE, McDougal, Littell & Co., Evanston, IL, 1992, color ill. p.177
"XXXVI Venice Biennale, European Tour," Smithsonian Institution and the United States Information Agency, Washington, D. C., 1972, exh. cat. no.15
DES MOINES SUNDAY REGISTER, Mar. 8, 1970, ill.
DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. pp.67 & 68, b/w ill. pl.47, p.67
"Paintings and Sculpture Today," Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN, 1969, exh. cat. no.48, ill. p.133
"Reflections of Realism," Albuquerque Museum of Art, NM, 1979, color ill.
