Can you find the artist's signature? Richard Estes, Bus with Reflection of the Flatiron Building, 1966–67, oil on canvas, Private collection. © Richard Estes, courtesy Marlborough Gallery, NewYork. Photo by Luc Demers
At the museum, some of us have become a bit obsessed not only with the paintings of Richard Estes, but in locating his signature (or name, really) in each of his paintings. Estes usually signs his work, but often in ways that make it nearly impossible to discover. Take one of my favorites from the exhibition, Bus with Reflection of the Flatiron Building. It is a composition of layered reflections, as a bus and a car ride side by side, and let their reflective surfaces bounce off each other like visual jazz, so that the bus is reflected in the car, as is the iconic Flatiron Building, the triangular-shaped icon at the crossroads of 23rd Street, Fifth Avenue, and Broadway, in Lower Manhattan. The building is now curved and reflected in the rear-view mirror of the car. Geometry bends as if this were one of Dali's gooey time-pieces. A lone rider at the back of the bus looks like he just had coffee at the Edward Hopper Bar and Grill. Where is he going? Where has he been?
And now for the challenge! Can you find the artist's last name in the painting? Here's an enlarged image of the painting above. And, (no peeking until you've given it a shot) here's the answer. All this week, as we anticipate the exhibition's closing this Sunday, we'll be featuring Estes' paintings and a search for signatures. Check our Facebook page and Twitter feed to play along. Game on!
Richard Estes' Realism remains on view through Sunday, February 8, 2015.
