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Lot Essay
American Photo-Realist Ralph Goings translates his photographic images to canvas with exquisite technical precision, holding his viewer rapt with the effectiveness of his illusion. Flawlessly blending his brushstrokes into velvety-smooth pictorial surfaces, Goings breathes fresh life into his diverse, quintessentially American subject matter, which encompasses air-stream trailers, roadside food stands, still lifes of condiments, and his most popular of all-the pick-up truck. These straightforward images satiate an impulse described by Linda Chase as "a desire to revalue what we as a culture find easiest to dismiss." (L. Chase, Ralph Goings, New York, 1988, p. 9).
Interior is both a fastidious technical masterpiece, and a romantic vision of life on the open road. Despite the titling, the sandy-gold pick-up truck in Interior- framed in the center of the canvas by glittering Formica and glass--is the undisputed hero of the picture. Rugged, traditionally masculine, and built for work, this classic symbol of American ingenuity and perseverance idles in wait, perhaps on the precipice of a long journey. Interior suggests the American dream of a mobile, free-wheeling life on the move, where each yawning expanse of highway is alive with possibility and promise. Goings' loving and expressive rendering nearly personifies this inanimate scene; says Edward Lucie-Smith, "(Goings) wants to tell us that the most ordinary things are well worth looking at-provided that we have the discipline to look at that property, on their own terms and for their own sake."(E. Lucie-Smith, Ralph Goings Four Decades of Realism, Youngstown, Butler Institute of American Art, 2004).
Interior is both a fastidious technical masterpiece, and a romantic vision of life on the open road. Despite the titling, the sandy-gold pick-up truck in Interior- framed in the center of the canvas by glittering Formica and glass--is the undisputed hero of the picture. Rugged, traditionally masculine, and built for work, this classic symbol of American ingenuity and perseverance idles in wait, perhaps on the precipice of a long journey. Interior suggests the American dream of a mobile, free-wheeling life on the move, where each yawning expanse of highway is alive with possibility and promise. Goings' loving and expressive rendering nearly personifies this inanimate scene; says Edward Lucie-Smith, "(Goings) wants to tell us that the most ordinary things are well worth looking at-provided that we have the discipline to look at that property, on their own terms and for their own sake."(E. Lucie-Smith, Ralph Goings Four Decades of Realism, Youngstown, Butler Institute of American Art, 2004).