Artist:
Robert Bechtle, an American painter, born in San Francisco, California on May 14, 1932. He received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California, in 1954 and 1958 respectively.
Bechtle has lived all his life in the San Francisco Bay Area, and his art is centered on scenes from everyday life.
Bechtle is considered one of the earliest Photorealists. By the mid-sixties, he had started developing a style and subject matter that he maintained over his career. Working from his own photographs, Bechtle created paintings that are described as photographic. Taking inspiration from his local San Francisco surroundings, he painted the neighborhoods, friends, family, and street scenes–paying special attention to automobiles. Bechtle's brushwork is barely detectable in his photo-like renditions. His paintings reveal his perspective on how things look to him, the color and the light of a commonplace scene.
Peter Schjeldahl wrote in The New Yorker that in 1969, when he first noticed a Bechtle painting, he was “rattled by the middle-class ordinariness of the scene.” As he looked more closely, he discovered “a feat of resourceful painterly artifice” that he gradually realized was “beautiful.” Schjeldahl concludes the article in this way: “Life is incredibly complicated, and the proof is that when you confront any simple, stopped part of it you are stupefied.”
Robert Bechtle, an American painter, born in San Francisco, California on May 14, 1932. He received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California, in 1954 and 1958 respectively.
Bechtle has lived all his life in the San Francisco Bay Area, and his art is centered on scenes from everyday life.
Bechtle is considered one of the earliest Photorealists. By the mid-sixties, he had started developing a style and subject matter that he maintained over his career. Working from his own photographs, Bechtle created paintings that are described as photographic. Taking inspiration from his local San Francisco surroundings, he painted the neighborhoods, friends, family, and street scenes–paying special attention to automobiles. Bechtle's brushwork is barely detectable in his photo-like renditions. His paintings reveal his perspective on how things look to him, the color and the light of a commonplace scene.
Peter Schjeldahl wrote in The New Yorker that in 1969, when he first noticed a Bechtle painting, he was “rattled by the middle-class ordinariness of the scene.” As he looked more closely, he discovered “a feat of resourceful painterly artifice” that he gradually realized was “beautiful.” Schjeldahl concludes the article in this way: “Life is incredibly complicated, and the proof is that when you confront any simple, stopped part of it you are stupefied.”
Robert Bechtle's Painting:
The Photo-Realist uses the camera and photograph to gather information.
The Photo-Realist uses a mechanical or semimechanical means to transfer the information to the canvas
As he has stated:
A photograph often gives the feeling of a particular moment in time, and you get the sense of how that is bracketed in with the before and after.
Narrative:
A space to feel a complex but cheerful life.
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