Telephone Booths 1967

Richard Estes made this painting of telephone booths with oil on canvas, and what strikes me first is the way he handles light and reflection as a kind of process. It's almost like the subject is not so much the booths themselves, but the act of seeing, and how seeing is always mediated through light, surfaces, and the urban environment. Looking closely, you can see how the reflections distort and abstract the surrounding cityscape. Estes meticulously renders the texture of the metal, the smooth glass, and the layered reflections, but it’s not just about photorealism. It’s about the push and pull between representation and abstraction. See how in the central booth, the figure in the white coat is fragmented and doubled, almost disappearing into the reflections? That ghostly image, caught between presence and absence, speaks to the transient nature of urban life. Estes feels like an heir to artists like Edward Hopper, capturing the alienation and beauty of the modern city, but with a twist. Where Hopper uses light to reveal, Estes uses it to obscure, challenging our perceptions and reminding us that what we see is never a straightforward representation of reality.