Richard Estes American, 1932

Richard Estes pioneered the Photorealist movement alongside Chuck Close, Ralph Goings, and Audrey Flack. He’s known for his uncanny paintings of New York City scenes, which have depicted storefronts and building atriums, the beams of the Williamsburg Bridge, and the view from the Staten Island Ferry. Many feature reflective surfaces, such as shop windows and shiny cars, which yield mirrored imagery and raise questions about perception.

A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Estes worked as an illustrator and experimented with photography before turning his focus to painting. His work has been exhibited in New York, Barcelona, Berlin, Buenos Aires, and Washington, D.C., among other cities, and has been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta (via Artsy).