D-Train

Characteristic of Richard Estes’s photo-derived urban scenes and crystalline naturalism, D-Train remains one of the most ambitious prints produced by Richard Estes and the Domberger workshop. Estes’ exaggerated panorama depicts the view from a vacant subway car as it passes the Brooklyn Bridge, Pier 17, and the lower Manhattan skyline. With its range of tones, textures, and perspectives, D-Train pushed the screenprint process to its limits. To facilitate the production of this unusually large print, a special silkscreen press was built in Sweden and then transported to Filderstadt, Germany for proofing and editioning. In order to provide a thick stable ground for the piece, Domberger had three sheets of museum board laminated together. By virtue of its monumental size and compositional complexity, Estes’ print imparts drama to the mundane passage of an urban commute.