Helene’s Florist

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Helene’s Florist

Artist Richard Estes (American, born 1932)

Date1971

DimensionsH: 48 in. (121.9 cm); W: 72 in. (182.8 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1976.34

Not on View

Label TextWhen you add figures [to the painting] then people start relating to the figures and it’s an emotional relationship. The painting becomes too literal, whereas without the figure it’s more purely a visual experience. — Richard Estes Richard Estes’ paintings are primarily celebrations of the visual complexity of the urban environment—though one without people. He used a photograph of Helene’s Florist Shop (at the time located on Columbus Avenue at 72nd Street in New York) as his source material for the painting. However, as much as it may resemble a photograph, the painting has qualities not found in photography. No traditional film camera can achieve the simultaneous depth of field necessary to give such complete clarity at both close and far range. The cropped neon sign at the upper left seems perhaps a sly reference to the “purely visual experience” Estes intends—Op (short for “optical”) Art was a contemporaneous abstract art movement that emphasized optical illusions. Estes has cleverly incorporated his signature (Richard Estes 71) into a sign in the painting—can you find it?Published ReferencesChase, L., Hyper-Realism, New York, 1975, repr. p. 17.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, p. 46, pl. 275.

"Treasures for Toledo," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 19, nos. 2 and 3, 1976, p. 79, repr.

Schulze, Franz, "'A Consistantly Discriminating Connoisseurship,'" Art News, vol. 76, no. 4, April 1977, repr. p. 67.

The Toledo Museum of Art; A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 96.

Gaugh, Harry F., "The Urban Vision of Richard Estes," Art in America, vol. 66, no. 6, Nov.-Dec. 1978, p. 136.

Giuliano, Charles, "Estes Lets the Public Eat Cake," The Real Paper, Boston, Mass., July 8, 1978, p. [31].

Meisel, Louis K., Photorealism, New York, 1980, repr. (col.) p. 226.

Patton, Phil, "The new realism," Eastern [Airlines] Review, Sept. 1981, repr. (col.) pp. 48-49.

Bass, Ruth, "The Illusion of Reality," Art News, vol. 80, no. 10, Dec. 1981, repr. (col.) p. 79.

Smagula, Howard, Currents: Contemporary Directions in the Visual Arts, Englewood Cliffs, 1983, pp. 61, 62, repr.

Failing, Patricia, Best-Loved Art from American Museums, New York, 1983, pp. 144-145, repr. (col.).

Horowitz, Frederick A., More Than You See: a Guide to Art, New York, 1985, p. 207, repr. p. 206 and (col. det.) pl 32.

Meisel, Louis K., Richard Estes: the Complete Paintings, 1966-1985, New York, 1986, p. 27, fig. 57 (col.), p. 66.

Goldstein, Nathan, Design and Composition, Englewood Cliffs, 1989, p. 155, fig. 7.2, p. 153.

Buchanan, Maryanne C., (Richard Estes and Helene's Florist), unpublished student paper, April 1991.

Mitnick, Barbara J., Harry Devlin: A Retrospective, Morristown, NJ, 1991, pp. 45-46, fig. 40. [not in exhib.].

Fiero, Gloria K., The Global Village of the Twentieth Century: The Humanistic Tradition, Book 6, 2nd ed., Dubuque, 1995, p. 153, fig. 37.20 (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 175, repr. (col.).

Fiero, Gloria K., The Humanistic Tradition, the Early Modern World to the Present, 4th ed., vol. II, Boston, McGraw Hill, 2002, p. 965, fig. 38.13 (col.).

Ocvirk, Otto G. et. al., Art Fundamentals: Theory and Practice, 9th ed., Boston, McGraw Hill, 2001, pp. 320, 321, fig. 10.112 (col.).

Duncan, Sally Anne, Otto Wittmann: Museum Man for All Seasons, Toledo, 2001, p. 20.

Wilmerding, John, Richard Estes, New York, Rizzoli, 2006, p. 223, repr. p. 222 (col.).

Exhibition HistoryNew York, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1972 Annual Exhibition, Contemporary American Painting, 1972, no. 34.

Venice, American Pavillon, XXXVI International Biennial Exhibition of Art, 1972, no. 17, repr.

Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum, New Photo Realism, Painting and Sculpture of the 1970s, 1974, p. 15, repr. p. 30.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Richard Estes: The Urban Landscape, 1978, no. 10, repr. cover (col. det.) and pp. 28, 29 (cat. by J. Arthur). (Toledo Museum of Art)

Nelson-Atkins Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. 1978

Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C. 1979.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Contemporary American Realism since 1960, 1981, p. 147, repr. (col.), pl. 38, p. 111.

Columbus, Columbus Museum of Art; Tokyo, The Isetan Museum; Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art; Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, et. al., A Nation's Legacy: 150 Years of American Art from Ohio Collections, 1992, no. 100, repr. p. 139 (col.), 177.

Palazzo Magnani, Reggio Emilia, Italy. 2006.

Reggio Emilia, Palazzo Magnani; Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Richard Estes: The Sensuousness of the Real, 2007, repr. p. 135 (col.).