NEW WORK

SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ROBERT BECHTLE: NEW WORK

SEPTEMBER 10 - DECEMBER 1, 1991

Born in San Francisco in 1932, Robert Bechtie studied at the California College of Arts and

Crafts in Oakland, and since 1968 has taught painting at San Francisco State University. In the late sixties and early seventies, when Bechtle became well-known nationally. his work was usually seen together with that of Richard Estes, Chuck Close, and Malcolm Morley, among others, as representing a new style called Photo Realism or New Realism. Although the relationship of Bechtle's work to photography was evident and much remarked upon, critical discussion generally centered on its subject matter-ordinary views of suburban streets and houses, occasionally with their inhabitants-and the artist's resolute avoidance of the heroic stance associated with Abstract Expressionism.1 Yet Bechtle, more than the other Photo Realists, chose to paint a particular kind of photograph, the ordinary snapshot­ of his family, for example, posed in front of a station wagon. His choice was no accident, as he explained at the time: "When I'm photographing a car in front of a house I try to keep in mind what a real estate photographer would do if he were taking a picture of the house and Parking Garage with Impala, 1990 try for that quality:'2 Other Photo Realists, to be sure, made paintings from photographs that could have been snapshots. But in the paintings themselves, only Bechtle's had the atmosphere of ordinary. family photographs because he purposely avoided the virtuoso effects that for the most part characterized the work of his colleagues. Bechtle has been so successful at transferring much of that informationto canvas, his paint­ Although Bechtle was probably unaware of it, at about the same time in Southern ings seem to be-and to some extent are-entirely objective, and we tend to give them the California another artist, John Baldessari, was making photographs of typical street scenes concentrated, allover attention that we give to photographs. It is as if they were snapshots, which he had printed directly on canvas. A more distant parallel, one whose work Bechtle enormously enlarged and taken by someone other than ourselves, and our first response to would not have known, was the German artist Gerhard Richter, who in 1962 began to paint them is almost like an intense. but nonsexual, voyeurism. We recognize the familiar subjects black and white photographs he had found in newspapers and books, and after 1966 often immediately because they are familiar streets and cars of the sort we know well in our own worked from snapshots he had made himself. Because of the way they were painted or, in lives, and we believe the paintings to be not only real, but somehow true. Yet because the Baldessari's case, printed, one would never mistake a work of Bechtle's for a Richter or a works are paintings, which our experience suggests almost invariably depict people or Baldessari. Nevertheless. by basing his paintings on snapshots as they did, Bechtie chose to events either of unusual interest or in a striking or revealing way, our expectations are situate his work outside the boundaries of painting as it had traditionally been practiced heightened, and we anticipate finding something both true and significant. seeming to leave aside such issues as composition, color, and formal invention, as all of these What we find, of course, is what we already know: a reality that, though being some­ had been determined the moment the camera's shutter was released. Bechtle's paintings one else's, is more or less the same as our own. Where we expect a message, there is none, were thus akin to Marcel Duchamp's Ready-mades, outside the realm of aesthetic choice and we are left with the same world we encounter everyday. Inevitably. there is a moment and taste, whether good or bad, inherently insignificant in their subject matter, and alto­ of disappointment, as we discover nothing but our own world, untransformed by the Roman­ gether beyond the issues of style. tic or Expressionist conventions we have come to expect from art. Yet the very ordinariness The experience of looking at one of Bechtle's paintings is of course quite different of Bechtle's vision is in some ways its point, and at the same time the source of its contem­ from seeing the photo-paintings of Richter or Baldessari. For one thing, the photographic poraneity. What you see in his art is in fact what you get in life icself. Bechtle's paintings, like image in their work is difficult to read, deliberately blurred in Richter's case, imperfectly the early work of Andy Warhol and Frank Stella, are entirely honest in their relationship to registered in the transfer to canvas in the case of Baldessari. In both we realize at once that the world and their refusal to use art for transcendental purposes. we are encountering a highly conditional image, one that refers as much to the printed Over the years, Bechtle's work has changed, but not greatly. An early critic, Carter media they are taken from or inspired by as to what is in the photographs themselves. In Ratcliff, found that "these pictures would be empty if it weren't for the bright California Bechtle's paintings, on the other hand, we see with absolute clarity, as if we were in the light which Bechtle manages to bring (via high-toned, warm color) from the photo to the presence of reality itself. Because photographs convey so much information, and because canvas. I wonder if his concern isn't with this light, and if his subject matter isn't chosen (by the camera-the artist as photographer) not for itself but for its usefulness in making this ROBERT BECHT LE SELECTED GROUP

light credible:'3 Since then, Bechtle's concern with light has grown. In the late sixties and Born in San Francisco, 1932 EXHIBITIONS

early seventies the light in his paintings tended to be frontaland pervasive, without any real Lives and works in San Francisco 1957 Richmond Art Center,Richmond, California indication of a particular time of day. In his more recent work he often uses back and side Oakland Art Museum lighting for interior scenes (which were themselves quite rare in his earlier paintings), and EDUCATION 1959 his landscapes tend to be set in the early morning or late afternoon, when shadows are 1954 California College of Am and Crafts. B.A., San Francisco Museum of Art more visible and light itself is sometimes an important presence. Today Bechtle sometimes California College of Arts and Crafts. M.F.A.. 1960 1958 paints what could be called portraits-of himself, his wife, and their friends. Although the Winter Invitational. California Palace of the Legion University of California. Berkeley.1960, 1961 of Honor, San Francisco artist and his family sometimes appeared in the early work, they tended to be generic l (Summer Sessions) 1964 figures,stand-ins for the typical American couple and their children in their own snapshots. San Francisco Museum of Art Now we encounter genuine likenesses of real individuals in his work. INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS 1966

Overall, what could be seen as the conceptual bent of Bechtle's earlier work has 1965 East Bay Realists, San Francisco Art Institute Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California lessened somewhat in favor of a more traditional realism as the snapshot quality of the 1967 Berkeley Gallery. Berkeley photographs he paints is sometimes reduced, and as the figuresin his paintings become less The Artist as His Subje ct, Museum of Modern Art, 1966 posed and more active, and even seem to have their own interior lives. At times Bechtle's New York E.B. Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento Annual Exhibition of ContemporaryAmerican current work comes close tothat of the great realist painters he has always admired (Winslow 1967 Painting. Whitney Museum of American Art, New Homer and Edward Hopper are especially near in some works in this exhibition), and his art Berkeley Gallery. San Francisco York (catalogue) contradicts our expectations less often. We are always, after all, more comfortable in the San Francisco Museum of Art 1968 artist's studio than fixed in an empty street or parking lot. Now, instead of a street Bechtle Davis Art Center, Davis, California The West Coast Now, Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon (catalogue) tends to paint a neighborhood, or at least a row of houses, and the light has become a warm, 1969 Vassar College Art Gallery, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Realism Now, almost reassuring presence. Yet in some works, such as Parking Garage with Impala, we seem California Palace of the Legion of Honor. San Poughkeepsie, New York (catalogue) to be back in the bleak but altogether familiar world Bech tie painted two decades ago. This Francisco 1969 Direcrions 2: Aspects of a New Realism, Milwaukee time, however;we can enter the space instead of simply interrogating the plethora of details 1971 0.K. Harris Works of Art, New York Art Center: Contemporary Arts Museum, transferred from the photograph, and the single Chevrolet, standing alone in a vast and Houston: Akron Art Institute (catalogue) 1973 unpleasant multilevel parking garage, seems to be a surrogate for our own, often-repeated 1970 John Berggruen Gallery. San Francisco (catalogue) experience. Taken together, Bechtle'snew work suggests that he has acquired a wary human­ Directly Seen: New Realism in California, Newport Jack Glenn Gallery, San Diego Harbor Art Museum, Balboa, California ism that encompasses at once the banal desolation of much of contemporary life, the visual, Robert Bechtle: A Retrospective Exhibition, (catalogue) E.B. Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento; Fine Arts sensual pleasures of California light, and the reassuring presence of other human beings. 22 Realists, Whitney Museum of American Art, Gallery of San Diego (catalogue) New York (catalogue) 1974 John Caldwell The Highway. Institute of Contemporary Art, O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Institute Curator of Painting and Sculpture 1977 for the Arts, Rice University, Houston; Akron O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York Art Institute (catalogue)

1980 American Painting 1970, Virginia Museum of Fine Robert Bechtle: Matrix/Berkeley 33, University Art Arts, Richmond (catalogue) Museum, Berkeley (brochure) The Arrested Image, Oakland Museum (catalogue) 1981 1971 O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York 1. William C. Seitz, for example, described Bechtie's content as a "quietly ironic submission to the Nixonian Radical Realism, Museum of Contemporary Art, 1984 era:· "The Real and the Artificial: Painting of the New Environment:' Art in America 60, no. 6 (November/ Chicago (brochure) O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York December 1972): 71. l 1972 1987 California Painting, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 2. Brian O'Doherty. "The Photo Realists: 12 Interviews:· Ibid, 74. 0.K. Harris Works of Art, New York Buffalo

1991 California Prints, Museum of Modern Art, New 14, 4 1970): 68. 3. Carter Ratcliff, "New York;' Art International no. (April Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco York Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Santa Monica The Realist Revival, New York Cultural Center

Documenta 5, Kassel, West Germany (catalogue)

Cover: Potrero Intersection- 20th andArkansas, 1990 California Representation: Eight Pointers in 1982 Chase, Linda. "Photo Realism: Post-modernist Rkhard. Paul. "New Smithsonian Art: From 'The Documento5. Santa Barbara Museum of An Drawings by California Pointers, Long Beach lllusionism:· Art lnternot1onol 20, no. 3-4 Sublime' to Photo Realism:· Woshmgton Pos1, Museum of Art. California;Oakland Museum (March/April 1976): 14-27. Amerikonischer Fotoreolismus, Wumembergischer November 30. 1978. (catalogue) Kunstvere1n, Stuttgart(catalogue) Frankenstein, Alfred. "Realism Brought Down Rose, Barbara. ed.Readings m American Art. 1983 toDate:· Son FranciscoChronicle, 1900-1975, 229, 231. New York: Praeger.1975. 1973 West-Coast Realism. Laguna Beach Museum of February 2. 1967. Ekstrem Reolisme. Louisiana Museum, Humleback, Rose, Barbara, and Jules D.Prown. American Art.California (catalogue) Denmark (catalogue) -- . "A 'Cool'Retrospective of a Master New Pointing. New York: Skira/R1z.z.oh,1977. Directrons In Boy Area Pomtmg: A Surveyof Three Realise:· Son FranciscoS unday Examinerand 1973 Biennial Exhibition: ContemporaryAmerican Rosenblum, Robert. "Painting America First:'Art Decodes, 1940s-1960s, Richard L. Nelson Gallery. Chronicle, October 7, 1973. Arc, Whitney Museum of American Art, New m America 64, no. 1(January/February1976): University of California,Davis York(catalogue) Fried, Alexander.Review. Son Francisco Examiner; 82-85. American Interiors, California Palace of the Legion Augus 11, 1967. Image, Reality, and Superreo/11y. Arts Council of t Russell, John. "In Connecticut: Contemporary of Honor. San Francisco Great Britain; traveling exhibition(catalogue) Friedman. Martin, Peter Gay. and Robert Pincus­ Classics at Aldrich:' New York Times, August 4, 1985 W1tten. A View ofo Decode. Chicago: Museum 1989. Photo-Realism: Pomtmgs. Sculpture and Prints from American Realism: Twentieth-Century Watercolors of Contemporary Art, 1977. the Ludwig Collection and Others, Serpentine Schjeldahl, Peter. "Too Easy To Be Artl" New York and Drawings from the Glenn C. jonss Col/ccrion, Gallery, London (catalogue) Honisch, Dieter, and Jens Christian Jensen. Times, May 12, 1974. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 1974 Amerikonische Kunst von 1945 bis Heute. -- 26, (cacalogue) . "Opposites Attracc:· Village Voice Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag, 1976. New Photo-Realism, Wadsworth Atheneum, no. 16 (April 16, 1981): 83. Views acrossAmerica. Gannett Company. New Hopkins, Henry. Fifty West Coast Artists. Hartford Seiu, William C. "The Real and che Artificial: York; organized by the Museum of Modern Art San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1981. 1975 Painting of the New Environment:' Arr in Advisory Service Image. Color. and Form: Recent Paintings by Eleven Hughes, Robert. ''Arts Critical Report: An Omni­ America 60. no. 6 (November/December Americans, Toledo Museum of Art (catalogue) Americon Realism, Wilham Sawyer Gallery, San vorous and Literal Dependence:' Arts 1972): 58-72. Francisco Magazine 48, no. 9(June1974): 25-29. Richard Brown Boker Collects!, Yale University Art Stofflet-Santiago. Mary. "Contemporary Explorers Gallery. New Haven, Connecticut (catalogue) 1989 Larson,Kay. "Painung the Public Lands:· ArtNews of the American Landscape:· Artweek 8, Pat Hearn Gallery, New York 75. no.1(January1976):32-36. no. 33(October 8, 1977). Super Realism. Baltimore Museum of Art of w , (brochure) A Decode American Dro mg 1980-89, Daniel Lindey. Chnstine. Superreol1stPointing and Sculpture Ward,John L. AmerKon Realist Pointing, 1945-1980. Weinberg Gallery. Los Angeles New York: Morrow, 1980. Ann Arbor:UMI Research Press. 1988. 1976 America 1976, Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1990 Lucie-Smith, Edward. Super Realism. Oxford: Washington, D.C.(catalogue) Col1forn10A-Zand Return,The Butler lnsutute of Phaidon. 1979. CHECKLIST American Art, Youngstown, Ohio(catalogue) America as Art, National Collecuon of Fine Arts, Marandel, J. Patrice. "Lettre de New York:' Art r o Smithsonian Institution,Washing ton, D.C. lnte noti nol 14, no. S (May 1970): 73-75. PAINTINGS (catalogue) SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY -- . "The Deductive image: Notes on Some Ingleside Street Contemporary Images m Watercolor, Akron Art Figurative Painters:· Art lnternotionol 15, no. 7 Artists Statements 1986 Institute; lnd1anapol1s Museum of Art; Memorial (September 1971): 58-61. Bechtle, Robert. ''Artist's Statement:' In Rober! oil on canvas Art Gallery, Un1vermy of Rochester, New York Markell, john. "Robert Bech tie's Photo Realism:· 1 Bechtle: A Retrospeciive Exhibilion (exh. cat.) 48 x 69 in. ( 21.9 x 175.3 cm) (catalogue) Doily Coliforn1onArts Magazine (Berkeley), Sacramento: E.B. Crocker Art Gallery. 1973. Collection of Alice Saligman. Gladwyne, November 2, 1973. 1977 Pennsylvania O'Doherty. Brian. "The Photo-Realists: 12 inter­ Illusion and Reality, Australian National Gallery, Meisel, Louis K. Photo-realism. New York: views- Robert Bech tie:· 60, Broome Srreet Zenith Canberra (catalogue) Art in America Abrams. 1980. 1987 no. 6(November/December 1972): 73-74. the A View of Decade, Museum of Contemporary Monte, James. "San Francisco:· Artforum S, no. 2 oil on canvas Art. Chicago (catalogue) (October 1966): 56-57. 48 x 69 in. (121.9 x 175.3 cm) Albright, Thomas. ':<\n Arnst with Vision:• Son 1978 Collection of Noah Liff, Nashville Fronmco Chronicle. October 26, 1973. Perrault, John. "Four Artists:· Soho Weekly News, California: Three by Eight Tw1Ce, Honolulu Academy December 29, 1977. Ocean Avenue -- . ''A Wide View of the New Realists:· Son of Arts. Honolulu -- . 1987 FronmcoChronicle, February 6, 1975. . "Realisms:· Art Express2, no 2 (March/April 1979 1982): 34-38. oil on canvas Alloway, Lawrence." Notes on Realism:· Am Late Twentieth-Century Art from the Sydney and 40x SOVi in. (101.6 x 128.3 cm) Mogozme 44. no. 6 (April 1970): 26-29. Pincus-Witten, Robert. "Twenty-two Realists, Frances Lewis Foundation, Institute of Contem­ Coilectlon of PacificTelesis Group, Whitney Museum:· Artforum 8. no. 8 (April poraryArt, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Amman, jean Christophe. "Realismus:· FlashArt SanFrancisco 1970): 74-77. (catalogue) 32-34(May-July1972):50-52. Sunset Intersection- 40th and Vicente Plagens, Pecer.Sunshine Muse:Contemporary Art 1981 Battcock,Gregory, ed.Super Realism: A Criucol on the WestCoast. New York: Praeger, 1974. 1989 Real, Really Real, Super Real: Directionsin Anthology. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1975. oil on canvas Contemporary Ratcliff,Carter. "New York:'Art lnterno!ionol14, m. Realism. San Antonio Museum of Chase, Linda, and Ted McBurneet. "Interviews 48x 69 (121.9 x 175.3 cm) no. 4 (April 1970): 67-71. Art, Texas with RobertBechtle. Tom Blackwell, Chuck Collection of Louis Meisel, New York -- Seven Photoreolists from New York Collections, Close, Richard Estes, and john Salt:' Opus . "New York Letter.· Art lnternotionol 16, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,New York lnternot1onol, no. 44/45(June 1973): 38-50. no. 2(February 1972): 54-SS. (brochure) Ooklondlntersecuon- S9111 and Stonford DRAWINGS 1990 Ocean View Sration Wagon oil on canvas 1990 40x SB in. (101.6 x 147.3 cm) charcoal on paper Courtesy of the artist, Gallery Paule Angllm, 7x15 in. (17.Bx 38.1 cm) San Francisco, and O.K. Harris, New York Courtesy Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Santa Monica PotreroIntersection-20th and Arkansas ParkingGarage withImpala 1990 1990 otl on canvas charcoal on paper 40x 58 1n. (101.6 x 147.J cm) 9'hx 11 in. (24.1 x 35.6 cm) Courtesy of the GalleryartlSt. PauleAnghm, Private collection San Francisco.and O.K. Hams. New York SrerlrngAlfenue. Alameda I WATERCOLORS 1990 charcoal on paper BroomeStreet Walkman 10x 14 in. (25.4 x35.6 cm) 1987 Courtesy Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Santa Monica watercolor on paper TwentiethStreet VW 23x 30 in. (58.4 x 76.2 cm) 1990 Collecuon of Mr.Jason Schoen.N ew Orleans charcoal on paper Oolr.londlntersecoon -S9111 and Stanford 10 x 14 1n. (25.4 x 35.6 cm) 1988 Courtesy Daniel Weinberg Gallery.Santa Monka wuercolor on paper 23x 30 m. (58.4 x 76.2 cm) WC atBlock Island 1990 CourtesyJames Corcoran Gallery. Santa Montea charcoal on paper Ookland Intersection-Wesra nd 40rh 10x 11 in. (25.4x 2 7.9 cm) 1989 CourtesyD aniel Weinberg Gallery, Santa Monica watercolor on paper Street Capri 22Y. x 30\4 in. (57.B x 76.B cm) 20th 1991 Courtesy of the artist, Gallery Paule Anghm, charcoal on paper San FranclSCo,and 0.1<.a H ms, New York 9 x 16 in. (22.9 x 40.6cm) PotreroStrolle r-Crossing ArkansasStreet Courtesy of the artist, GalleryPau le Anglim. 1989 San F ranclsco.OK and Harris,New York watercolor on paper A\'Cnue.Alameda II 23x 30 1n. (58.4x 76.2 cm) Ster/mg 1991 Courtesy of CaliforniaCollege of Artsand Crafts, Oakland charcoal on paper 10x 14 1n. (25.4x 35.6 cm) Tram toKwe1/in Collection of Ph1hp Anglim, Venice. California 1989 watercoloron paper 8'hx (21.6x 31.8 12\/i1n. cm) RobertBechtle: New Work is generously supported Brown Collecuon of Kathan and Tom Marioni by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's Kansas Streer Collectors Forum.

1990 © 1991 San FranciscoMuseum of ModernArt on watercolor paper 401 Van Ness Avenue.San Fran cisco, 22\lix 29'h in. (57.2x 74.9 cm) California94102-4582 Courtesyof the artist, GalleryPaule Anghm, San Francisco,and O.K. HarPS, New York TheSan Francisco Museum of Modern Art1s a privately funded.member-supported museum receiving maJOrs upportfrom Grants forthe Ans of the San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund and the NationalEndowment fo r the aArts. Federal ageocy NfW

A SERIES OF RECENT WORK BY YOUNGER AND ESTABLISHED ARTISTS