Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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.
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1960s Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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Early 2000s Photorealist Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
Etching, Aquatint
1990s Modern Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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1970s Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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1970s Contemporary Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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1970s Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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1970s Contemporary Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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1920s Photorealist Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
Paper, Watercolor, Lithograph
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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20th Century Modern Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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2010s Realist Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
Paper, Emulsion, Lithograph
1930s American Modern Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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1990s Contemporary Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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1930s American Modern Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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Early 20th Century Photorealist Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
Paper, Ink
Late 20th Century Realist Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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1910s Modern Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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1980s Photorealist Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
Screen
1960s Photorealist Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
Lithograph, Pencil
Late 20th Century Photorealist Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
Aquatint
Late 20th Century American Realist Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
Woodcut
1990s Contemporary Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
Etching, Aquatint
1970s Contemporary Robert Bechtle Prints and Multiples
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