Ralph Goings

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.

Goings was born to a working-class family in Corning, California and grew up during the Great Depression.

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.

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.