Robert Bechtle

Gladstone Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Robert Bechtle: A Retrospective, February - June 2005, fig. 23, p. 38, illustrated in progress in color
New York, Gladstone Gallery, Robert Bechtle, December 2006 - January 2007

Louis Meisel, Photorealism in the Digital Age, New York, 2013, pl. 23, p. 24, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. The edges of the canvas are taped. There is evidence of light wear and handling along the edges. There are a few scattered scuffs and abrasions along the lower edge. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Although it depicts a place that would have been well known to Robert Bechtle, his own hometown of Alameda, Alameda Intersection–Clay and Mound Streets is at the same time both familiar and unfamiliar, real and unreal, homely and unhomely. Unheimlich, the German word for unhomely, has a second meaning in the German language–uncanny. An uncanny illusion is one that we find unsettling, one that forces us to re-examine how we perceive it, one that cause us to fathom how and why it came to be made. If it tricks the eye, it does so only fleetingly; its uncanniness is tied to its very artificiality–we comprehend it as a copy of something else, a deceitful double, yet we gape at its incredible realism. Alameda Intersection–Clay and Mound Streets epitomizes Bechtle's dexterity in rendering the uncanny which has been so praised by Michael Auping: "A master of the deadpan, he creates images so familiar we have a hard time seeing them, let alone interpreting them. There are no specific political agendas, philosophical pretentions or spiritual overtones. Yet they carry an ineffable mystery about the meaning of a good–if not heroic–life in our time" (Exh. Cat, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (and travelling), Robert Bechtle: A Retrospective, 2005, p. 44)