Since 1970, LGBTQIA2S+ people and allies have come together during June for marches and other events recognizing their contributions to history and our communities. Celebrate Pride Month by visiting these and other works by LGBTQIA2S+ artists at TMA!

The locations in Richard Estes’s paintings are “the stage sets on which our lives have been led,” he has said. They show landmarks from a bygone era in New York City’s history, when Estes, who arrived after completing art school in Chicago, could make a living producing sketches and layouts for trade publications. Part of the city’s appeal to Estes as a young gay man was the relative freedom it offered, allowing him to visit gay bars and afford his own apartment.

Estes used a photograph of Helene’s Florist Shop (then located on Columbus Avenue at 72nd Street) as his source material for this painting. As much as it may resemble a photograph, the painting has qualities not found in photography. No traditional film camera can achieve the simultaneous depth of field necessary to give such clarity at both close and far range. The cropped neon sign at the upper left may be a sly reference to the “purely visual experience” Estes intends—Op (short for “optical”) art was a contemporaneous abstract art movement that emphasized optical illusions.

Richard Estes (born 1932), Helene’s Florist. Oil on canvas, 1971. 48 x 72 in. (121.9 x 182.8 cm). Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1976.34. Not on view.*