Gus Heinze

Gus Heinze (born May 1, 1926) 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. 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," 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."

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." 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."

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

Solo exhibitions since 1995 2011 — Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, New York 2009 — Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, New York 2006 — Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, New York 2004 — David Klein Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan 2004 — Plus One Gallery, London, UK 2004 — Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, New York 2003 — Modernism, San Francisco 2002 — Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, New York 1999 — Mendenhall Gallery, Pasadena, California 1998 — Modernism, San Francisco 1997 — Mendenhall Gallery, Pasadena, California 1996 — Modernism, San Francisco 1995 — Galerie Redman, Berlin, Germany

Group exhibitions since 2005 2010 — "Expansion," Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, New York 2008 — "Contemporary American Realism: 2008 Biennial," Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, Indiana 2008 — "Unforeseen Reflections," Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, New York 2008 — "SPF 20 — Shades of Summer," Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, New York 2007 — "Culinary Arts," Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, New York 2007 — "Structure," Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, New York 2006 — "Summer Suite," Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, New York 2005-6 — "Majestic Tapestries of Magnolia Editions," Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, California 2005 — "Contemporary American Realism VIII," MA Doran Gallery, Tulsa, Oklahoma 2005 — "Personal Places," Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, New York 2005 — "Winter in Blue," Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, New York 2005 — "Industrial Landscapes in Contemporary Painting," Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery, New York 2005 — "21st Century Realism," General Electric Company Corporate Art Program, Fairfield, Connecticut

Selected public collections Allergan Pharmaceuticals, Los Angeles Bank of America World Headquarters, San Francisco Chase Manhattan Bank, New York Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Oakland, California Dean Witter Reynolds, San Francisco GTE Corporation, Thousand Oaks, California Hughes Aircraft Corporation, Los Angeles Kaiser Permanente, Fontana, California Transamerica Corporation, Los Angeles