ROBERT BECHTLE: Keeping it Photo-Real

Years ago  (8, precisely) I ventured through an exhibit of California art in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  One painting struck me more than the others as I meandered through the halls.  It was a rendering of a non-descript but strikingly realistic wood paneled station wagon sitting in a sun-splashed driveway of a suburban California home.  The image was done on a canvas and the small description to the right of the work read: “oil on canvas.”  But without close inspection the fact that the image was actually painted seems to defy imagination.

Upon leaving I did my museum visitor civil duty and bought the post card in the museum shop at its typically inflated price and taped it onto the dashboard of my car (I was in college) to entertain anyone who wasn’t already overtly stimulated by riding in a 1992 Chevy Lumina.  Now the card is long gone but the image remains.

“His pictures look just like real pictures!” student art critic, Dixfield, ME

On the wall over my desk at school I have the painting printed out in color.  Every now and then I point it out to discern between realism and photorealism.  Seeing that work, the concept of photorealism does not escape them.

The artist is Robert Bechtle, a painter from California who taught at San Francisco State University.  He thrived at painting very ordinary scenes, such as suburban homes, driveways, and sidewalks, but by creating them with such vivid likeness he transformed them into subject matter worthy of close inspection.  When I look at his work I find myself looking closely at things like newspaper dispensers, rear bumpers, and sidewalk curbs searching for brush strokes and other signs that the work was actually marked with a paint brush.

Here are a few more examples of his work:

Outside of the first and last “Cool People Drive White Volvos” meeting.

Sarah Palin’s worst nightmare.

“So, you’re dropping out of school to become a fire juggler?”