I was encouraged by several older artists to go to New York.
The first trip was with a friend. I had sublet Manny Farber’s studio, and we were both doing some work for Jack Beal. I met Chuck Close, who was working on his first oversized portraits, one floor down from Beal’s loft. I was already impressed by Beal’s paintings from the ’60s, in which he combined figures and abstract elements into powerful and colorful statements.
I began my journey into “realism” in 1976. On a trip east, I visited Beal at his upstate “farm,” where he had built a studio on the property to work on a huge project. On four 12′ x 12′ canvases, he was about to start a project commissioned by the GSA. Because of the bicentennial, a large number of artists had been given grants to make public art. His project was an allegorical history of labor in the United States, destined to hang in the Labor Building in Washington, DC. I ended up staying for a year, helping with the project.
That experience started my own exploration of realism. All the elements I was interested in were still there, with the additional benefit of really working on compositions in space. Color relationships actually became even more important. My own “realism” began, and I continued when back on the West Coast. The resurgence of realism in the art world was summed up by the “Palm Springs Desert Museum” in a show of contemporary realism.
“ During the 1950’s, realism disappeared from critical consideration, only to re-emerge a decade later with Pop Art, Photo-Realism, Super-Realism and other styles loosely grouped under the category of New Realism. This exhibition of artworks from the Museum’s permanent collection, explores the diverse styles of Realism of the late 20th century. Included are works by Richard Estes, Philip Pearlstein, Andy Warhol, George Segal, Wayne Thiebaud, Richard Diebenkorn, Chuck Close, Robert Treloar, and other Artists. ”
– “CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN REALISM” Palm Springs Desert Museum