Details

Title

Agua Caliente Nova

Artist/Maker

Robert Bechtle (American, 1932 – 2020)

Date

1975

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

48 x 69 1/2 inches

Credit

Purchase with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ray M. and Mary Elizabeth Lee Foundation

Accession #

1978.1

Location

Currently not on view

In honor of the American Bicentennial in 1975, forty-five American artists were commissioned by the Department of the Interior to depict the American landscape. Here Robert Bechtle shows the desert canyon of the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation near Palm Springs, California, as an incidental backdrop for the view of a Chevrolet Nova, the artist’s wife, and his children. This typical tourist’s snapshot maintains an aura of both tangible familiarity and painterly precision. Bechtle relishes opportunities to explore the mundane, revealing the delicate balance found in the universe of cars, streets, houses, and sidewalks in his hyper-realistic paintings.

Image Copyright

© (c) Robert Bechtle