NARRATOR:

A family station wagon parked in a suburban driveway becomes a surprisingly compelling image in this 1974 painting by Robert Bechtle. This tightly balanced composition titled “Alameda Gran Torino” presents elements of a quintessential California landscape with photographic precision. Even the mundane details of domestic architecture and commerce are painstakingly rendered. Look at the license plate. It’s evident this car was purchased at Golden Bear Ford. The artist explains:

BECHTLE:

This particular car had something to do with a kind of a long-term coming to grips with where I grew up, which was the city of Alameda, on the other side of the Bay.

NARRATOR:

Working from photographs, Bechtle used his camera as a sketchbook for a series of such paintings. The individual works challenge our perceptions of artistic representation.

BECHTLE:

It seemed like having an interest in a representational image, I could use what was essentially an illustrator’s technique. But it was the idea of trying to make a kind of non-style, of trying to make something which didn’t look obviously like art, sort of looking through the painting technique at the subject matter, and then wanting people to be slightly befuddled by it. You know, in the sense of, ‘Why in the world is he painting that?’ Because it’s such a dumb thing to paint. But on the other hand, it’s dumb, but it’s very American.