Agua Caliente Nova
Modern and Contemporary Art

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Agua Caliente Nova
Artwork Details
Artist/Maker
Robert Bechtle
American, 1932 – 2020
American, 1932 – 2020
Date
1975
Medium
Oil on canvas
Accession #
1978.1
Dimensions
Please contact the Museum for more information.
Location
Currently Not on View
Description
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.
Credit
Purchase with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ray M. and Mary Elizabeth Lee FoundationImage Copyright
(c) Robert Bechtle