[Estes Painting] Richard Estes frequently bases his paintings on photographs he takes of urban locations--a technique favored by American Photo-realist painters in the 1970s. But he transforms their process by sketching images onto a canvas rather than transferring photographic images directly.

Although Estes' paintings appear to be faithful recordings of a site, he sometimes creates details within a scene. Diner is a study of a row of telephone booths he inserted in front of the actual Empire Diner in Manhattan.

Courtesy of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, museum purchase, 1977

Diner, 1971, by Richard Estes (b. 1932), oil on canvas

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