Richard Estes

Richard Estes

Richard Estes can be classified as a photorealist painter. He paints a lot of New York City scenes and reflections of city life, although he avoids famous landmarks.

Extremely meticulous depiction of detail, high finish, and sharp focus. He paints intricate reflections of glass and mirror surfaces that look like high-definition photographs.  He doesn't include certain details like snow or dirt because he feels they will detract from the scene.

compared to Chuck Close and Dwayne Hanson.

Hung Liu

Hung Liu

Cherry, 2010, mixed media

Rainmaker, 2011, mixed media on tapestry

Hung Liu studied mural painting in Beijing. She includes Chinese history in nearly all of her paintings.

She shows images of refugees, women, and children- references of anonymous Chinese historical photographs. Heavy use of metaphor for the loss of memory and traditional Chinese symbolism.

Formally she uses linseed oil to make the painting look drippy/obviously referential of paint itself. This is a GREAT example of space and place! She uses mixed media on panel, canvas, or tapestry.  Mixed media breaks figure/background planes.

Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas' paintings blur the lines of race and identity. She is interested in the ambiguous divide between the public and private self. She also includes themes of sexuality, empowerment, and exploitation.

Formally she works from photographic imagery. The emotional, carnal quality of her images redefines the content of her sources. She uses oil paint on canvas in high contrasting colors or fluid watercolor on paper.

Wilhelm Sasnal

Wilhelm Sasnal

Girl Smoking (Anka), 2001, oil on canvas

Soldiers, 2001, oil on canvas

Wilhelm Sasnal modifies reality by painting banal situations and objects in unusual compositions. He borrows subjects from art history, 20th century propaganda, and photojournalism. He explores modern concepts of beauty in his portrait series. The cigarettes in the women's mouths represent self-destruction. Many of his paintings are contemporary versions of Pop Art.

He paints in a way that you can clearly see the medium is paint.

Very similar to Luc Tuymans.

Luc Tuymans

Luc Tuymans

Gas Chamber, 1986, oil on canvas

The Rabbit, oil on canvas

Tuymans uses photographs as source material to create dislocation from real events, manipulation and deception in art. He executes all of his works in a single day and experiences feelings of aggression and violence before and during painting. His works, removed from photographs, create a sense of detachment. They often appear blown-out and overexposed.

Very similar to Wilhelm Sasnal.