LONDON.- Newport Street Gallery is presenting Richard Estes: Voyages, the first major exhibition of the artist’s work in the UK, running to 12 December 2021.

The show, curated by Andrew Heyward, includes forty-five paintings made over the last thirty years. While Estes is best known for his paintings of New York, the London show also features paintings made following trips to Europe, Asia, Africa and Antarctica.

“I am thrilled to be able to bring Richard Estes’ first retrospective to the UK. Richard is a living icon of American painting and this will be a rare opportunity to see his mesmerizing works in person”, said Damien Hirst. “I’ve loved his work since I was shown it when I was 13 by my art teacher in high school, Mr Wood. While trends and movements come and go, Richard has stayed true to his vision and singular approach to painting for more than fifty years and I find this unwavering commitment to be a true inspiration. While Richard’s much-loved paintings of New York will be central to the show, the lesser-known works made from his travels around the world are a revelation and I’m super excited to include them in his show and to be helping to give a broader understanding of Richard’s work to a British audience.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated, hardbound monograph with a new text by Patterson Sims. Richard Estes’ last European retrospective was held at El Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, in 2007.

Most recent US retrospectives were organized jointly by the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC – both curated by Patterson Sims, who is writing for the Newport Street Gallery catalogue.

Richard Estes is the standard-bearer of photorealist painting and its most devoted and accomplished practitioner. His work is defined by a profound commitment to the quotidian truths of his depictions. Of equal importance is his unique creative process in which repeated observations coalesce into an image in his mind. The painting of that image represents a vision within his subjective reality. Over the last half century, the rare integrity of his process has unveiled a true understanding of the world around us, even as our cities, our landscapes and our rituals change – slowly and steadily, then all at once. As the pendulum swings back from abstraction and realism recaptures the imagination, Richard Estes’ place is secured as one of the leading painters of the 20th century. His body of work includes his interpretations of timeless, pristine images of New York City as well as his many adventures in travel.