It was a pleasant suprise to see a 240 sedan in one of the paintings at this year’s Whitney Biennial. It was in a painting by Robert Bechtle, a photorealist painter from the ’60s who somehow managed to timewarp into the 21st century Whitney Museum. I’m not sure the curators saw his work as relevant to contemporary practice. We probably have enough people painting from photos, something I admit to doing for years, and it seems to have run its course.

I think it was a matter of recognizing a long-ignored artist, similar to how the Motion Picture Academy recognizes film makers long after they’ve ended their careers with no Oscars to show for it. There was a retrospective at the SF MOMA in 2005 and seeing his new work in the context of his career makes more sense, but his earlier work seems much more innovative and ground breaking. Seeing snap shots of families and friends rendered large by hand was breathtaking, even if he didn’t render the detail of a Richard Estes. And how can you argue with a 4 foot wide rendering of a Ford Gran Turino wagon?

Update 02/12/09: Jalopnik’s Murilee Martin found the driveway that was rendered in this painting. The Gran Turino was long gone though.