Gus Heinze
Gus Heinze speaks about his work in seemingly incongruous terms, referring to his impeccably rendered paintings and prints of train components, flowing streams, grapes, and streetscapes as abstract realism. Indeed, although his paintings represent objects or locales in striking detail, the actual subject matter of the images is not the physical objects or places depicted, but rather the way in which light, color, and form harmonize within each particular painting to form a unique and delicate composition. Heinze developed his technical ability working as a commercial artist in New York. Simultaneously, Heinze studied fine art painting, at the School of Visual Art (where he studied with illustrator Robert Weaver), and at the Art Students League. Despite the pre-eminence of abstract painting in New York throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Heinze worked during that period to develop his signature, realist style, citing both Abstract Expressionists and figurative artists as his primary influences. Heinze subsequently left New York, but the advent of the photorealist movement in the 1970’s provided a category into which people were quick to place his work. His paintings, however, differ in several important ways from the bulk of photorealist work. To begin with, Heinze is unconcerned with how the camera manipulates focal planes, preferring to use the camera as tool through which he is able to almost inadvertently happen upon and document motifs. Heinze discovers his images by photographing a wide array of subjects, hoping to capture the specific moment in which the light reflected off of a stream, the sun beaming through a cluster of luscious grapes, or a drip of water trickling down the curb transforms a seemingly mundane scene into an image brimming with abstract harmony. This variety of subject matter further differentiates Heinze from most photorealists, who tend to concentrate on a single subject. While the range of his work is broad, Heinze’s unique touch and vision pervades each of his images, making them instantly recognizable.
© Magnolia Editions
CHRONOLOGY
Born Bremen, Germany
EDUCATION
Art Students League, New York, studies with Howard Trafton & Robert Ward
Johnson; School for Visual Arts, New York; studies with Robert Weaver,
1947-50
ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS
1999 Mendenhall Gallery, Pasadena
1998 Modernism, San Francisco
1997 Mendenhall Gallery, Pasadena
1996 Modernism, San Francisco
1995 Galerie Redmann, Berlin, Germany
1994 Modernism, San Francisco
1993 Modernism, San Francisco
1992 Cudahy's Gallery, New York, NY
1991 Modernism, San Francisco
1989 Modernism, San Francisco
1988 Modernism, San Francisco
1985 William Sawyer Gallery, San Francisco
Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles
1981 M. Shore and Son Gallery, Santa Barbara
William Sawyer Gallery, San Francisco
1976 Far Gallery, New York, NY
1973 Gallery 3, Greenwich, CT
1972 Deecey Gallery, Greenwich, CT
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1998 In Over Our Heads: The Image of Water in Contemporary Art, San Jose
Museum of Art, San Jose
1996 The Cigar, Modernism, San Francisco
1995 Martini Culture, Modernism, San Francisco
1994 Realism '94, Fletcher Gallery, Santa Fe
1993 Tribute, William Sawyer Gallery, San Francisco
Photorealism Since 1980, Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY
1992 California Dreamin', Fresno Metropolitan Museum, Fresno, CA
1991 Cudahy's Gallery, New York, NY
The Palm Tree Show; New Paintings by Eleven Artists, Modernism, San
Francisco
1990 Contemporary Realist Painting, Oliver Art Center, California
College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, curated by Dyana Chadwick
1982 Realism Show, Rosenthal Gallery, Chicago
Motor Trends, Grapestake Gallery, San Francisco
Thirty Approaches to Realism, William Sawyer Gallery, San Francisco
1978 Art and the Automobile, Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI
HONORS
1978 Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI
1977 First Prize, Marin Society of Artists Inc., Ross, CA
1976 Prize for Painting, Artrium, Santa Rosa College
1975 Best in Show, Friends of Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Allergan Pharmaceuticals, Los Angeles
Bank of America World Headquarters, San Francisco
Gerson Bakar Collection
Banker's Life, Des Moines
Bergen/Brunswig, Los Angeles
Claus-Henning Bruns Collection, Hamburg, Germany
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY
Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Oakland
Salvadore Dali Organization, Spain
Dean Witter Reynolds, San Francisco
GTE Corporation, Thousand Oaks, Ca
Grubb and Ellis Corporation, Oakland
Hancock, Rothert & Bunshoft, San Francisco
HMF Financière Collection, Geneva, Switzerland
Hughes Aircraft Corporation, Los Angeles
Kaiser Permanente, Fontana, CA
San Francisco Sentry Collection
Transamerica Corporation, Los Angeles
Transamerica Corporation Realty Group, San Francisco
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Artwalk Returns to San Francisco, Art-Talk, Feb 1988, p. 38.
Bonetti, David. S.F. Art World Knows No Season, San Francisco
Examiner, June 25, 1991, p. C1.
Gus Heinze. Introduction by Peter Frank, Mendenhall Gallery, Pasadena, 1997.
McDonald, Robert. Photorealism as Abstraction, Artweek, No. 10, 1985.
Meisel, Louis K. Photorealism Since 1980, Harry N. Abrams, NY, 1993.
Müller, Katrin Bettina. Trash-Kultur und Status-Symbole, Kunst & Antiquitäten, No.
15417, Oct 14, 1995, Seite B3.
Roche, Harry. Critic's Choice, San Francisco Bay Guardian, June 28, 1989, p. 57. |
|
