Actually, Iconic: Richard Estes

Admired by artists ranging from Salvador Dali to Chuck Close, Richard Estes is a humble icon of modern art. Despite having avoided media attention throughout his long career, he has been called the “king of photorealism,” a movement he helped launch in the late 1960’s. His break with abstract, non-representational art transformed modern painting. Now, at 87, he is ready to reveal the techniques and inspiration behind his art.

In “Actually, Iconic: Richard Estes” filmmaker Olympia Stone explores a rich survey of Estes’ masterpieces with unprecedented access to the artist including glimpses into Estes’ personal life, from his isolation as a child, always being a little “strange,” to coming out in the early 1960s in NYC and the “total wipeout” of the AIDS epidemic on his intimate and personal friendships. Stone creates a delicate portrait which does more than just explore Estes’ lifetime of creative output; it humanizes it.