Guy Diehl: Still Life Painting

Guy Diehl: Still Life Painting Essay by Susan Landauer, Katie and Drew Gibson Chief Curator, San Jose Museum of Art Hardcover $90.00 Paperback: $75.00 In this 260 page hardcover book you will find a selected survey of nearly two decades of still life paintings by San Francisco Bay Area artist Guy Diehl. 118 full color plates illustrate the direction Guy has taken his work during this period. Guy sees himself as an interpreter, who is making a record of his observations through still life. These observations are intuitive, as well as responsive to images that are within the composition. In this survey Guy's work comes from a desire to explore the legacy of still life painting. He does this through the study of art history and the physical process of painting. The classical aspect of composition and the tradition of still life, infused with his own perspective, is his primary goal. Guy’s ideas of art-about-art have become the focus of his work. By referencing artists’ images with books and their titles they are employed to comment on or link to the objects within the painting. He makes this juxtaposition to place the familiar in a different context, combining diverse ideas to create unexpected compositions for the viewer.