American painter (1928 - 2016)
Ralph Goings
(May 9, 1928 ? September 4, 2016) was an American
painter
closely associated with the
Photorealism
movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was best known for his highly detailed paintings of hamburger stands, pick-up trucks, and California banks, portrayed in a deliberately objective manner.
Biography
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Early life
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Goings was born to a working-class family in
Corning
,
California
and grew up during the Great Depression. He was exposed to art and painting in a freshman high-school art class, and inspired by his discovery of
Rembrandt
at his local library. His aunt encouraged him to draw, and bought him books and instructional materials. He began painting using paint from the local hardware store, and old bed sheets when canvas was unavailable.
Education
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After serving in the military, Goings enrolled in
Hartnell College
, in
Salinas, California
and was approached and encouraged to attend art school by Leon Amyx, who was the head of the art department at
Hartnell
at that time and a well-known painter. Goings studied art at the
California College of Arts and Crafts
in
Oakland
. During his studies at California College of the Arts, he studied along other painters from the Photorealist Movement including
Robert Bechtle
and Richard Mclean, as well as other artists including
Nathan Oliveira
. He received his MFA in painting from
Sacramento State College
in 1965.
He was inspired by artists such as
Wayne Thiebaud
,
Johannes Vermeer
, and
Thomas Eakins
. His interest in
Photorealism
sparked after being thoroughly disappointed with the quality of the pop art imagery at the time; he felt that if something was to represent an object then it should resemble a photograph as closely as possible.
Work
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Goings helped to define the
Photorealist Movement
[1]
along with
Robert Bechtle
,
Robert Cottingham
,
Audrey Flack
,
Don Eddy
, and
Richard Estes
.
[2]
"In 1963 I wanted to start painting again but I decided I wasn't going to do
abstract
pictures". It occurred to me that I should go as far to the opposite as I could. ... It occurred to me that projecting and tracing the photograph instead of copying it freehand would be even more shocking. To copy a photograph literally was considered a bad thing to do. It went against all of my art school training... some people were upset by what I was doing and said 'it's not
art
, it can't possibly be art'. That gave me encouragement in a perverse way, because I was delighted to be doing something that was really upsetting people... I was having a hell of a lot of fun..." (edited quote from Realists at Work)
[3]
References
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External links
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