Robert Bechtle
Potrero Sun, 1985
Watercolor on paper
Framed Dimensions:
27 x 31 x 2 inches
68.6 x 78.7 x 5.1 cm
Paper Dimensions:
23 3/8 x 26 3/4 inches
59.4 x 67.9 cm
Robert Bechtle
Crossing Texas Street, 2011
Charcoal on paper
Framed Dimensions:
21 5/8 x 29 1/2 x 1 3/8 inches
55 x 74.8 x 3.5 cm
Paper Dimensions:
19 3/4 x 27 1/2 inches
50.2 x 69.8 cm
Robert Bechtle
Ocean View Station Wagon, 1990
Charcoal on paper
Framed Dimensions:
23 1/8 x 28 5/8 x 7/8 inches
58.7 x 72.7 x 2.2 cm
Paper Dimensions:
19 3/4 x 25 1/4 inches
50.2 x 64.1 cm
An early pioneer of the Photorealist movement, Robert Bechtle has long focused on scenes of everyday but intimate American life: streetscapes, backyards and interior views. Honesty, not vanity, is paramount in Bechtle’s Photorealist domain.
Bechtle was born in 1932 in San Francisco. He lived and worked in the Bay Area until his death in 2020. Bechtle studied painting and graphic design at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, earning a BFA in 1954 and an MFA in 1958. A major retrospective exhibition of his work was organized by SFMOMA in 2004; it traveled to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. His work has been included in numerous major group exhibitions internationally and is in the permanent collections of many museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
