Gus Heinze
Gus Heinze by Michael Netzer
Born (1926-05-01) May 1, 1926 (age 97)
Bremen, Germany
NationalityAmerican
Known forPainting
MovementPhotorealism

Gus Heinze (born May 1, 1926 in Bremen, Germany) is an American photorealist painter.

Early work

From 1947-1950, Heinze studied under Robert Weaver, Howard Trafton, and Robert Ward Johnson at the School of Visual Arts and the Art Students League in New York.[1] During the 1950s and 1960s he worked as a freelance commercial artist on Madison Avenue. In 1970 he began his career as a photorealist painter in Bondville, Vermont; many of his paintings from this period depict parts of automobiles and motorcycles in close-up.

"Abstract realism"

In 1978 Heinze relocated to Marin County, California, and began exploring more diverse subjects. He increasingly moved toward storefront-window and city scenes, in a style that he calls "abstract realism,"[2] where the subject is real but the point of view and composition give the painting an abstract quality — resulting in a kind of reverse trompe-l'œil. As his works can appear half-real, half-abstract, it is not surprising that the artist himself describes abstract realism as "a total oxymoron."[3]

In addition to his urban subjects, Heinze has also painted dilapidated farm equipment such as tractors and water pumps, and old trains and locomotive engines; in Exactitude: Hyperrealist Art Today, John Russell Taylor writes that "Heinze is fascinated by decaying machinery left behind as the detritus of the Industrial Revolution. The forms are powerful, if inscrutable."[4] He has also done series of paintings depicting rocky cliffsides, vineyard grapes, and streams; much of his subject matter is characterized by complex reflections off glass or water, intricate foliage, and deep background blacks with saturated colors in the foreground. In Photorealism at the Millennium, Louis K. Meisel writes that Heinze "has not settled into any particular subject matter or point of view. This makes his work less distinctive and recognizable than that of other photorealists, but it also provides him with an added degree of freedom."[5]

Heinze's paintings have been featured in the books The Martini and The Cigar, both by Barnaby Conrad III.[6][7] In 1999 he began collaborating with Magnolia Editions to produce lithographic reproductions.

Solo exhibitions since 1995

Group exhibitions since 2005

Selected public collections

References

  1. ^ Muller, Martin, ed. (2005). Modernism: Twenty-Five Years 1979-2004. San Francisco: Contemporary. ISBN 978-0-9761509-0-9.
  2. ^ "Abstracted Realism". American Art Collector magazine. September 2009. p. 108. Retrieved September 2, 2009.
  3. ^ Taylor, John Russell (2009). Exactitude: Hyperrealist Art Today. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-23863-9.
  4. ^ Taylor 2009.
  5. ^ Meisel, Louis K. (2002). Photorealism at the Millennium. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-3483-2.
  6. ^ Conrad III, Barnaby (1995). The Martini: An Illustrated History of an American Classic. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0-8118-0717-3.
  7. ^ Conrad III, Barnaby (1996). The Cigar. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0-8118-1449-2.

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