Rupert García - Editions & Works on Paper New York Thursday, February 15, 2024 | Phillips
  • “I’m not interested in style... I’m interested in looking.”
    —Robert Bechtle
    The collection of Robert Bechtle and Whitney Chadwick, assembled over their nearly forty-year marriage, reflects Bechtle’s legacy as a preeminent Photorealist along with Chadwick’s expertise as a historian and scholar. With works by Wayne Thiebaud, Ed Ruscha, and Leonora Carrington, among others, their extensive collection of editions and works on paper represents many of Bechtle’s fellow Bay Area artists, notable names in Pop, and female figureheads of Modernism and Surrealism whom Chadwick championed through her writings and teachings.   

     

    Known for his tightly detailed renderings of suburban landscapes and vintage cars, Bechtle is considered one of the founding Photorealists, a set of artists who used photographs as a point of departure for their hyperrealist art. Such interest in notions of realism permeate the works on offer, presenting a multitude of the artistic methodologies for interpreting the world: a visual interpretation of the musicality and movement of a ballet, postmodern representations of landscape, a surreal memory of a childhood home, and even different artists’ renditions of Bechtle himself. Following his passing at the age of 88 in 2020, Bechtle’s legacy persists through his collection, inspiring the continued search for unexpected beauty in the everyday. 

    • Provenance

      Gift of the artist

    • Literature

      Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco 12a and 103

Property from the Robert Bechtle and Whitney Chadwick Trust, San Francisco, California

49

Lot offered with No Reserve

Decay Dance; and Frida Kahlo (F.A.M.S.F. 12a & 103)

1969 & 1990
Two screenprints in colors, on wove paper, with full margins.
Decay Dance I. 24 3/4 x 19 in. (62.9 x 48.3 cm)
Decay Dance S. 26 x 20 1/8 in. (66 x 51.1 cm)
Frida Kahlo I. 24 x 18 7/8 in. (61 x 47.9 cm)
Frida Kahlo S. 29 7/8 x 23 in. (75.9 x 58.4 cm)

Both signed and dated in pencil, Decay Dance numbered '1/many' and dedicated 'For Robert' in pencil, Frida Kahlo titled and numbered 31/100 in pencil (Decay Dance the edition was approximately 50-75 and some artist's proofs), Frida Kahlo published by John X. Fernandez Jr., both unframed.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$1,000 - 1,500 

Sold for $191

Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 15 February 2024