{"data":{"id":"86","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":86,"topgoose_id":2775,"tms_id":86,"display_name":"Robert Bechtle","sort_name":"Bechtle Robert","display_date":"1932–2020","begin_date":"1932","end_date":"2020","biography":"\u003cp\u003eRobert Bechtle began painting realistic\nimagery in 1963 and by the late 1960s\nformalized what would become his\nbasic working process—projecting slides\nand tracing them onto canvas for\nhis Photorealist paintings. Working from\nsnapshots that document everyday life\nand capture quiet scenes and anonymous\nsituations in his San Francisco Bay\nArea neighborhood, he was rejecting both\nAbstract Expressionism and the Bay\nArea figurative tradition of the preceding\ngeneration. Like the Pop artists who\nincorporated elements of mass culture,\nBechtle relied on source materials, but he\nwas not interested in ironic critique.\n“My interest in these subjects has nothing\nto do with satire or social comment,”\nhe explained. “I paint them because\nthey are part of what I know and as such\nI have an affection for them; I am\ninterested in their commonness and in\nthe challenge of making art from\nsuch ordinary fare.”\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMediating his work through\nphotography has allowed Bechtle to\nimpartially present the banal, unglamorous\nfacts of ordinary life, even as the specific\nmoment in time caught by the camera\nis translated and elevated through painting.\nIt is a dialogue through which he has\nexplored the relationship between the two\nmediums. In\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/493\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;’61 Pontiac\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Bechtle depicts\na familiar scene—a family snapshot\nof himself with his wife and two children\nposing in front of their station wagon.\nThe painting’s light is even, and the setting\nanonymous. Through the title, Bechtle\nhas nominally made the car—a recurring\nmotif in his paintings—the subject\nrather than his loved ones.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500016607","wikidata_id":"Q328645","created_at":"2017-08-30T17:35:44.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-03-31T07:00:27.180-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/86/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/86/exhibitions"}}}}