Jone's diner 1979

Richard Estes made this painting, Jone's Diner, with an amazing eye for color, especially when you consider how light reflects off different surfaces. The way he captures the ordinary is quite extraordinary. Look closely at the fire hydrant near the diner. It's not just red, it's got this incredible depth, with layers of color that suggest the play of light and shadow. And the reflections in the diner windows? They're like little abstract paintings within the larger scene, distorting and reconfiguring the world around them. Estes has a really interesting focus on surface. This kind of hyperrealism always makes me think of Gerhard Richter, who also blurred the lines between painting and photography. But where Richter is all about the blur, Estes is about the hyper-clarity. Ultimately, art is about how we see, and how we make sense of the world.