REVIEWS

“Guy Diehlʼs still lifes openly-and-playfully-acknowledge tradition, especially the tradition of the new. Dramatically tenebristic and exquisitely executed the surface is polished to perfection, evoking the “perfection” of the artists the works celebrate Diehlʼs pictures are at once homage to the a heroic artistic past, which we now know largely through reproductions in books, and, less ironically brooding mediations on beauty."

—Donald Kuspit | CALIFORNIA NEW OLD MASTERS - Exhibition catalog 2005

“Guy Diehlʼs paintings are reverential, above all A consummate technician steeped in in art history, Diehl practices painting as an act of homage. In his first local solo show since 1987, at Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Arts, Diehl pays tribute to Morandi, Rothko, Zurburan, Ingres, Goya, Modigliani, Demuth and Joan Brown - by name as well as through visual quotes and references.

Diehl is terrifically adept at rendering volume, translucency and shadow, and his compositions are always elegant and harmonious."

—Leah Ollman | LOS ANGELES TIMES - Dec. 10, 2004

“Good still-life painters can create illusions of palpable reality yet locate things we commonly taste, smell and touch firmly in the precincts of the imagination. Guy Diehl (b. 1949), whose acrylic still lifes were on view this June at Hackett-Freedman, uses the library rather that the kitchen as his setting. Diehlʼs formula is to juxtapose natural objects with books and art reproductions. The objects are centered on a table with its front edge dead parallel to to the picture plane.

All paintings, no matter how realistically painting, are fiction. Confronting the silent, mundane objects of the still life, Diehl celebrates the phenomenal worldʼs strangeness and beauty while offering a glimpse to the realities beyond.”

—Gail Leggio | AMERICAN ARTS QUARTERLY - Spring 2003

“Some years ago Bay Area painted Guy Diehl found the still life formula that generated the works on view at Hackett-Freedman." With smooth, unfinicky realism, Diehl describes arrangements of books - frequently art books - envelopes and other objects stacked on a tabletop under raking daylight, with darkness behind.

The composition of a picture such as “Still Life with Picasso Guitar” 2000, smartly recalls the internal geometry of Russian constructivism and De Stijl. Showing a book open to an image of one of Picassoʼs most famous sculptures, the painting gives Diehl a chance to re-create and salute an artist heroʼs work."

—Kenneth Baker | SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - June 16, 2001