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Robert Bechtle: A Retrospective
March 4 - June 4, 2006
(above: Robert Bechtle, News Stands,
Los Banos, 1973, watercolor on paper; 10 x 16 inches. Collection of
the artist, courtesy Gallery Paule Anglim, and Barbara Gladstone Gallery;
© Robert Bechtle)
The Corcoran Gallery
of Art will present the exhibition Robert Bechtle: A Retrospective,
the first fullscale survey of the work of this important San Francisco-based
artist. Organized by Janet Bishop, curator of painting and sculpture at
the San Francisco 
Museum of Modern
Art (SFMOMA), the exhibition features more than 90 works -- paintings, watercolors
and drawings that trace his career from his early photo-based pieces of
the 1960s to his most recent works. Since his work emerged in the context
of New or Photorealism in the late 1960s, Bechtle's family genre scenes,
streetscapes and images of cars have become icons of middle-class American
culture. The exhibition is the most comprehensive presentation of the artist's
work to date and will be on view from March 4 through June 4, 2006 at the
Corcoran the last and only East coast venue for the tour. (right:
Robert Bechtle, RB on De Haro Street, 2004, charcoal on paper; 12
1/2 x 12 1/2 inches. Courtesy the artist, Gallery Paule Anglim, and Barbara
Gladstone Gallery; © Robert Bechtle)
Despite widespread exposure in the context of Photorealism and inclusion in important surveys of American art in the United States and abroad, Bechtle's work had not been the subject of a major museum show until it was recently displayed at the SFMOMA and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in 2005. This exhibition spans the artist's 40-year career with work drawn from local, national and international collections. Accompanying the show is a major publication with color plates of all of the works in the exhibition and essays by Bishop, painter and art historian Jonathan Weinberg, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth chief curator Michael Auping, SFMOMA curatorial associate Joshua Shirkey, and Los Angeles-based artist Charles Ray.
"Bechtle's extraordinary talent lies predominantly
in what he can do with paint, rather than in what he can do with likenesses
or photographs, though all of these elements figure into his accomplishments,"
notes Jonathan P. Binstock, a coordinator for the 
Corcoran
presentation and Corcoran Curator of Contemporary Art. "While his pictures
look terrific in reproduction, they are altogether different in person,
when one can experience the finesse of his painterly application and of
his unique touch. Nothing looks quite like his creations -- they are transporting."
(left: Robert Bechtle, Watsonville Olympia, 1977, oil on canvas;
48 x 69 inches. Collection of the artist, courtesy of Gallery Paule Anglim
and Barbara Gladstone Gallery; © Robert Bechtle)
Bechtle was born in 1932 in San Francisco and raised across the Bay 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 -- the then dominant mode of expression among his local peers and predecessors. Bechtle's interest in painting elements from his immediate surroundings as they actually looked, rather than an interpretation of how they looked, led to his use of black and white photographs in 1964 as studio aids.
The following year, Bechtle began taking slides for color
reference which he projected directly onto canvas. After outlining the 
contours of the forms in pencil, the artist then built
up the work with paint to establish the presence of form, light and color.
The photographs provided Bechtle with the beginning structure for the painting,
which allowed him to make artistic changes in the content and composition
of the work as he painted. (right: Robert Bechtle, Yucca, 1973,
watercolor on paper; 11 x 16 inches. Collection San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art, gift of Byron R. Meyer; © Robert Bechtle)
Bechtle's paintings emphasize Northern California residential neighborhoods -- replete with stucco houses, repetitive rows of palm trees and the ubiquitous parked car. Bechtle's preference for wide, empty spaces; his flat, sunbleached palette; and his detached mode of recording detail impart a certain sense of alienation to his frequently banal subjects. The comprehensive exhibition includes works, such as the extraordinary '60 T-Bird , 1967-68, an iconic image from Bechtle's early group of car images. This painting features the artist's brother standing proudly beside his virtually perfect white coupe with gray tires appointed with white stripes.
The Retrospective also includes the painting, Alameda
Gran Torino, 1974, a deadpan image of a wood-paneled station wagon,
which is considered to be one of Bechtle's finest works. Other early works
in the exhibition include, '56 Chrysler, 1965, set in front of the
artist's mother's Alameda home; and '46 Chevy, 1965, featuring Bechtle's
brother sitting in the artist's own convertible, 
which
is the first piece to make use of a snapshot-like aesthetic -- a major direction
of his work for the duration of the 1960s and 1970s. Major family genre
scenes include, Roses, 1973, featuring a trio of women on a suburban
sidewalk and Agua Caliente Nova, 1975, giving an honest view of the
family experience of the Western landscape. The exhibition also includes,
Frisco Nova, 1979, an important bridge between the artist's snapshot-inspired
paintings of cars and people to his more recent emphasis on landscape. (left:
Robert Bechtle, Potrero Table, 1994, oil on canvas; 36 x 77 inches.
Collection of the artist, courtesy of Gallery Paule Anglim and Barbara Gladstone
Gallery; © Robert Bechtle)
The exhibition concludes with San Francisco residential landscapes, including the dramatic Sunset Intersection-40th and Vicente, 1989; Texas Street Intersection, 2000; and the companion paintings, Mariposa I and Mariposa II, 1999 and 2000, which make use of the artist's hilly Potrero Hill neighborhood; and Jetta, 2003, showing the artist's recent interest in depicting covered cars. Bechtle's recent work is also represented by major interiors -- both self-portraits and double portraits of himself with his wife, art historian Whitney Chadwick, in such pieces as, Broome Street Zenith 1987, and Potrero Table, 1994.
About Jonathan P. Binstock
As Curator of Contemporary Art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Jonathan P. Binstock oversees the collection's art since World War II, including painting, sculpture and multimedia art.
Most recently he co-curated The 48th Corcoran Biennial: Closer to Home; and curated Atomic Time: Pure Science and Seduction, an exhibition by Jim Sanborn; The 47th Corcoran Biennial: Fantasy Underfoot; and Primary Properties: Mary Judge, Joseph Dumbacher John Dumbacher. He is currently working on the exhibition: Sam Gilliam: A Retrospective.
Dr. Binstock received his Ph.D. and M.A., both in Art History, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He holds a B.A. from Washington University, St. Louis.
Editor's Note: RL readers may also enjoy these earlier articles:
and videos:
KQED / San Francisco offers Spark, a television
show, an educational outreach program and a Web site about Bay Area artists
and arts organizations. Spark's
web site says "More than a showcase for art objects and the artists
who make them, Spark takes the audience inside the creative process
to witness the challenges, opportunities and rewards of making art."
In a 10-minute, 27-second video from September 12, 2005, titled " Paint x 3," Spark watches Robert Bechtle at work rendering one of his favorite subjects -- his Potrero Hill neighborhood -- and talking about his motivations and images as he prepares for a retrospective exhibit of his work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (February 12 through June 5, 2005).
The San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art web site contains an interactive online exhibit
titled Robert Bechtle:
A Retrospective which contains movies. In one movie the artist describes
how he paints motion and stillness and in another he discusses still life
vs. landscape painting.
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