Robert Bechtle is considered one of the founding Photorealists, a set of artists who used photographs as a point of departure for their hyperrealist art.
Bechtle first introduced photographs into his painting technique in 1964 as a studio aid, while painting a scene with his wife Nancy Dalton, whom he often depicted in his work. By 1966, his use of photographs had evolved into an integral component of his process.
Bechtle typically begins by selecting an image, usually his photographs or anonymous snapshots, which he then projects onto the canvas from a slide. Bechtle held a particular fascination with the snapshot, typically amateur photographs of cars, for the nature of the subject matter, its immediacy, and lack of affect. He was attracted to the subversive implications of the photo-based technique for complicating the rigid genre hierarchies he had internalized in art school. Bechtle’s interest in the everyday and the ordinary also reveals the influence of Pop art, which he saw firsthand while traveling in Britain in 1961.
Bechtle’s early Photorealist works are infused with a subtle realism, and an implicit sense of humor pervades his subjects and compositions. His best-known paintings and prints focus on familiar suburban American middle-class subjects and themes, such as the car and the house. Unlike the gestures and lyricism of Diebenkorn and other artists associated with Bay Area Figuration, Bechtle was interested in attaining a more objective approach to realism.
In 1982, Bechtle married the art historian Whitney Chadwick. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1977, 1982, 1989); John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1985); American Academy of Arts and Letters (1995); Francis J. Greenburger Foundation (2002); and the Modern Art Council at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA, 2003).
Early notable exhibitions that helped establish Bechtle’s career include group shows at San Francisco Art Institute (1966); Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, New York (1968); and the Milwaukee Art Center (1969). He received his first solo museum exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art (now SFMOMA, 1967). Bechtle’s work was also shown in several exhibitions and venues critical to the history of Photorealism, such as Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1970, 1973); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1971); Documenta, Kassel, West Germany (1972); Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York (1973); Samsung Museum of Modern Art, Seoul (2001); and Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (2009). In 1991, SFMOMA held a solo exhibition of his work and later mounted a major retrospective in 2005, which traveled to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas (2005), and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (2006). He lives in San Francisco.
Find a collection of Robert Bechtle art on 1stDibs.
Toothbrush Variant II
By Robert Bechtle
Located in San Francisco, CA
Robert Bechtle was born in 1932 in San Francisco and raised in Alameda. He studied graphic design and painting at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, earning his BF...
Lithograph
Price Upon Request
Mississippi Street Intersection
By Robert Bechtle
Located in Palo Alto, CA
Created in 2007, this color soft ground etching with aquatint on paper is hand-signed and dated by Robert Bechtle (San Francisco, 1932 - Berkeley, 2020)...
Etching, Aquatint
Price Upon Request
'63 Bel Air, from Four Chevies
By Robert Bechtle
Located in San Francisco, CA
Edition of 60 Robert Bechtle was born in 1932 in San Francisco and raised in Alameda. He studied graphic design and painting at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, earning his BFA in 1954 and MFA in 1958. He began painting seriously in the early 1960s, finding his own voice through a tightly controlled realism that was distinct from the expressionistic paint-handling characteristic of Bay Area Figurative art...
Lithograph
Price Upon Request
'61 Impala, from Four Chevies
By Robert Bechtle
Located in San Francisco, CA
Robert Bechtle was born in 1932 in San Francisco and raised in Alameda. He studied graphic design and painting at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, earning his BF...
Lithograph
Price Upon Request
'71 Caprice, from Four Chevies
By Robert Bechtle
Located in San Francisco, CA
Edition of 60 Lithograph in colors Plate: 8 1/2 x 11 inches Sheet: 13 x 17 inches Robert Bechtle was born in 1932 in San Francisco and raised in Alameda. He studied graphic des...
Lithograph
Price Upon Request
'64 Impala, from Four Chevies
By Robert Bechtle
Located in San Francisco, CA
Robert Bechtle was born in 1932 in San Francisco and raised in Alameda. He studied graphic design and painting at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, earning his ...
Lithograph
Davos, Parsenn Region, Switzerland Vintage Ski Poster (1968)
Located in London, GB
To see our other original vintage posters, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below click on "See all from this Seller." Davos, Parsenne, Switzerland Vintage Ski Poster 1968 67 x 53 cm Printed by LooArt Press, Colorado Springs, Colorado 1960s poster for Davos ski resort in Parsenn, Switzerland, featuring a photograph of a skiier jumping off the slope into powder snow...
Lithograph
$1,120Sale Price|20% Off
H 29.75 in W 23.75 in D 0.75 in
St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna - Hand Colored Cityscape Lithograph
By Luigi Kasimir
Located in Soquel, CA
Detailed and dramatic hand-colored etching by Luigi Kasimir (Austrian, 1881-1962). St. Stephen's cathedral towers above the streets of Vienna, with people going about their daily bus...
Paper, Watercolor, Lithograph
$295
H 25.99 in W 19.69 in
Music : The Orchestra - Lithograph poster - Berggruen / Mourlot 1975
By Fernand Léger
Located in Paris, IDF
Fernand LÉGER (1881 - 1955) Music : The Orchestra Lithograph after a watercolor (printed in Atelier Mourlot) Signature printed in the plate On paper 66 ...
Lithograph
Tribute to the Victims (Viet Nam) - Lithograph, 1967
By Alexander Calder
Located in Paris, IDF
Alexandre Calder (1898 - 1976) Tribute to the Victims, 1967 Lithograph on offset background (Arte atelier) Printed signature in the plate On paper 75 x 44.5 cm (c. 29.5 x 17.3 inch) Original vintage poster INFORMATION: Published by Maeght on the occasion of the artist's exhibition "Pour le Viet Nam...
Lithograph
$545
H 20.5 in W 18.75 in
Henri Matisse Lithograph, Abstract, 1958, Acanthes, The Last Works of Matisse
By (after) Henri Matisse
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Henri Matisse (after) Title: Acanthes Portfolio: The Last Works of Henri Matisse Medium: Lithograph Date: 1958 Edition: 2000 Frame Size: 20 1/2" x 18 3/4" Sheet Size: 14" x 1...
Lithograph
$1,085
H 17 in W 13 in
The Gates (c), from the Project for Central Park
By Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Located in New York, NY
This offset lithograph in colors from the Project for Central Park, New York City, was created by the artist in 2004. One of 300 hand-signed by the artist in pencil from an unnumbere...
Lithograph
$295
H 14.18 in W 19.69 in D 0.4 in
Italian Landscapes - Lithograph by Franco Marzilli - 1980s
By Franco Marzilli
Located in Roma, IT
Lithograph on wove paper, realized in 1980s. Hand signed under each image. Excellent condition. In Vedute italiane, Franco Marzilli pays homage to the timeless charm of Italy’s u...
Lithograph
$1,150
H 8.75 in W 5.75 in
Basquiat at Vrej Baghoomian gallery 1989 (Basquiat Red Warrior announcement)
By Jean-Michel Basquiat
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Basquiat: Vrej Baghoomian gallery New York, 1989: Vintage original folding announcement card to Jean-Michel Basquiat at Vrej Baghoomian Gallery New York: 10/21 to 11/25, 1989. Pictured on front side is an image of Basquiat's iconic, 'Red Warrior.' A rare, highly collectible Basquiat ephemera piece that works well in any collection. Off-set printed gallery announcement. 8.75 x 5.75 inches (folded closed). Light signs of handling; otherwise very good overall vintage condition. Published by Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York, 1989. Unsigned from an edition of unknown. Scarce. Jean-Michel Basquiat rose to success during the 1980s. Basquiat’s paintings are largely responsible for elevating graffiti artists into the realm of the New York gallery scene. His spray-painted crowns and scribbled words referenced everything from his Haitian and Puerto Rican heritage, to political issues, pop-culture icons, and Biblical verse. The gestural marks and expressive nature of his work not only aligned him with the street art of Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf, but also the Neo-Expressionists Julian Schnabel and David Salle. “If you wanna talk about influence, man, then you've got to realize that influence is not influence,” he said of his process. After quickly rising to fame in the early 1980s, Basquiat was befriended by many celebrities and artists, including Andy Warhol, with whom he made several collaborative works. At only 27, his troubles with fame and drug addiction led to his tragic death from a heroin overdose on August 12, 1988 in New York, NY. The Whitney Museum of American Art held the artist’s first retrospective from October 1992 to February 1993. Related Categories: Basquiat Tony Shafrazi. Basquiat ephemera. Basquiat poster. Basquiat prints...
Lithograph, Offset
$244Sale Price|50% Off
H 10 in W 7.325 in
Untitled Composition (Poligrafa, Redfern, Figurative, Surreal, 50% OFF MUST GO)
By Jorge Castillo
Located in Kansas City, MO
Jorge Castillo Untitled Composition from "Ediciones Poligrafa, Barcelona at Redfern Gallery, London" Original Color Lithograph Year: 1979 Size: 10 x 7.325 inches (25.4 × 18.61 cm) Ed...
Lithograph
Samurai
By Red Grooms
Located in Lyons, CO
Color lithograph, Edition 40. Red Grooms and Master printer Bud Shark began their many print collaborations in 1981 with “Mountaintime”, followed in 1982 by their first three-dimensional lithograph, “Ruckus...
Lithograph
$375
H 10 in W 14.5 in
RUSTICATORS AT THE CLOSE OF DAY Lithograph on Arches, Golfers New England Sunset
By Sally Caldwell-Fisher
Located in Union City, NJ
RUSTICATORS AT THE CLOSE OF DAY is an original hand drawn lithograph(not a photo reproduction or digital print) by the American woman artist Sally Caldwell-Fisher, printed using hand...
Lithograph
$236
H 27.56 in W 19.69 in D 0.04 in
Countryside - Lithograph by Lucio Rofrano - 1990s
By Lucio Rofrano
Located in Roma, IT
Lithograph realized by Lucio Rofrano in 1990s. Edition of 150, numbered and hand signed. Excellent condition.
Lithograph
Sold
H 13 in W 16.75 in
'68 Oldsmobile Iconic mid century modern photorealist lithograph photo realist
By Robert Bechtle
Located in New York, NY
Robert Bechtle '68 Oldsmobile, 1969 Color lithograph on wove paper. Unframed, with original label from the 1971 San Francisco Art Institute Centennial E...
Lithograph, Pencil
Sold
H 18.75 in W 20.5 in
Robert Bechtle 'House near Stinson Beach' Signed Limited Edition Print
By Robert Bechtle
Located in San Rafael, CA
Robert Bechtle (American, b. 1932) House Near Stinson Beach, 1998. Color soft-ground etching with spit-bite aquatint, 1998. Signed, dated and numbered ...
Aquatint
Sold
H 26 in W 26.25 in
Robert Bechtle 'Albany Monte Carlo' Signed Limited Edition Print
By Robert Bechtle
Located in San Rafael, CA
Robert Bechtle (American, b. 1932) Albany Monte Carlo, 1990 Color woodcut on silk mounted on rag paper, 1990. Signed and numbered in pencil. Edition 3...
Woodcut
House Near Stinson Beach
By Robert Bechtle
Located in New York, NY
Color soft ground etching with spit bite aquatint Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil, recto Also titled in pencil, verso This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Robert...
Etching, Aquatint
63 Bel Air
By Robert Bechtle
Located in San Francisco, CA
Robert Bechtle was born in 1932 in San Francisco and raised in Alameda. He studied graphic design and painting at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, earning his BF...
Lithograph