Richard McLean - 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

    • Artist Biography

      Richard McLean

      American • 1934 - 2014

      Washington-born artist Richard McLean was a leading figure in the Photorealist movement, a practice that aims to meticulously reproduce photography in painting. Within this genre, he is best known for his detailed paintings of horses and their riders at racetracks or country fairs in rural California.

      McLean worked alongside artists like Chuck Close and Richard Estes but stayed true to his focal point: the Western aesthetic. While, originally, horses served as the primary subject matter of his scenes, over time the horses became incidental details, allowing the natural world to dominate the space. McLean has translated Kodachromes into painting, simultaneously pushing realism to its edges and questioning the thin line between mass media and fine art.

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

65

Untitled (Horse in Stall)

1982
Unique watercolor drawing, on Arches watercolor paper.
11 1/2 x 14 3/4 in. (29.2 x 37.5 cm)
Signed and dated in pencil, accompanied by a signed dedication 'For Bob and Whitney with Love and Best Wishes, Richard + Darlene, November 6, 1982' in black ink on the reverse of the frame, framed, see condition report.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$2,000 - 4,000 

Sold for $4,445

Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 15 February 2024