Still life with Modigliani

About Guy Diehl

Guy Diehl – Taking a stroll through the history of art Guy Diehl’s carefully composed still-life images take the viewer on a fascinating journey through important stages in the history of art. His new paintings appear under the… Read more

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Guy Diehl – Taking a stroll through the history of art

Guy Diehl’s carefully composed still-life images take the viewer on a fascinating journey through important stages in the history of art. His new paintings appear under the title “Book Series”. In addition to the traditional objects – vases and postcards containing images from works of different artists, with which he plays in each picture – books now feature prominently: Books about the artists, their influences, and the historical contexts in which they worked. Guy Diehl himself does not stay in modernity, instead wandering along with Caravaggio and Edward Hopper through different eras of the past and present, setting free the colours and styles of different centuries.

Still Life

The dark-toned still lifes by American artist Guy Diehl are renowned, original works of the purest shade. A clear, fresh light rules like a glowing furnace over carefully arranged objects representing art history and time. In the pictures, the border between painting and photography dissolves perfectly. The application of color, drawing of details, and direction of light generate an overwhelming effect of photorealism; the final appearance is astonishing.
A three dimensional, deep space opens before a neutral background: everything strives to fit into the historically loaded and symbolically meaningful family photo album. A new, well-known modern artist reigns in each picture. Yves Klein or Amedeo Modigliani are represented, for example, in the form of their respective, very famous art books, a sought out motif, and intentionally placed objects such as bottles, glasses, or other color coordinations. By grasping the typical style of each artist and meaningfully combining it with classical forms of still lifes, Guy Diehl mixes tradition and modernity.
He invites you to a school of conscious viewing. Although invested to the maximum with an objective multiplicity of meanings, the works nevertheless prove to have captured the ideal of aesthetic reduction. Each piece of a painting appears clear and without embellishment: neither less realistic nor more artistic. Guy Diehl doesn’t need to paint the film of dust to give his pictures more depth or to trace living time. Utter creative permeation, in the form of transparency and opaqueness, effective highlights and secret shadows, takes the viewer on a hypnotic journey through a sought out chapter of art history and modernism. These pictures are truly sensual plays of historic, lively materiality before the background of a thoroughly modern, picturesque accuracy.

Stephan Reisner

VITA

1949	Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
1973	B.A. California Style University Hayward, CA, USA
1976	M.A. San Francisco State University, CA, USA
	Lives and works in Tiburon, CA, USA

Exhibitions

	Single Exhibitions (Selection)
2011	Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
2007	Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Sonoma, CA, USA
	Hackett-Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
2004	Hunsaker/Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, USA
2003/01/98	Hackett-Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
1997/94/93	Modernism, San Francisco, CA, USA
1995	Fletcher Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, USA
1990	Jeremy Stone Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
1987	Hunsaker/Schlesinger Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
1982/84	Hank Baum Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
	Group Exhibitions (Selection)
2011	The Art of the Book, Donna Saeger Gallery, San Rafael, CA, USA
	The Art of Painting in the 21st Century, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA, USA
2010	Americans at Play, Sullivan Goss an American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
	A Winter Quartet, Sullivan Goss an American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
	100 Grand, Sullivan Goss an American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
2009	Landscape, Portraits, Still Lifes and Sculpture, George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
	Translations, Susan Street Fine Art Gallery, Solana Beach, CA, USA
2008	Contemporary Still Life, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA, USA
2007	Contemporary Selections, Hackett-Freddman Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
	The Art of Food, K Gallery, Alameda, CA, USA
2005	Sonoma valley Museum of Art 2005 Biennial, Sonoma, CA, USA
	California New Old Masters, Gallery C, Hermosa Beach, CA, USA
	Looking Back and Seeing Forward, Charles Campbell Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
2003	The Not-So-Still Life, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA, USA
2002	Books Without Pages, Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID, USA
2000	A Noble Tradition Revisited, Spanierman Gallery LLC, New York City, USA
1999	Re-Presenting Representation IV, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY, USA
	Contemporary Realism, Lisa Kurts Gallery, Memphis, TN, USA
1994	A Room With A View, The North Point Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
1989	Proof Positive, Simon James Gallery, Berkeley, CA, USA
1987	Contemporary Realism, Palo Alto Cultural Center, Palo Alto, CA, USA
1982	Northern California Realist Painters, Redding Museum, Redding, CA, USA
1971	Upstart, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA, USA