Ron Bechet

Ron Bechet

b. 1956, New Orleans
lives in New Orleans

New Orleans native Ron Bechet is a former longtime chairman of the art department and a current professor at Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans. He earned a BA from the University of New Orleans and an MFA from Yale School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut. Bechet’s preferred medium is large-scale painting and drawing, often on a support of shaped plywood, which lends his works a sculptural quality. His paintings primarily feature Southern Louisiana inspired landscapes, and while illusions of the natural world are the focus of his imagery, they often serve as metaphors for the human condition. Undulating roots reveal lithe and supple limbs, twisted branches suggest a graceful female form, and vines cast a shadow like outstretched arms. Bechet has a playful manner of storytelling through his subjects, engaging viewers by asking them to puzzle out his meaning, and at other times making astute social commentary on various cultural themes, such as spirituality, violence, and the realities of the human condition. His work was recently featured in Tina Freeman: Artist Spaces, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans (2017–18), and his solo exhibitions include Sense of Place, Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette, Louisiana (2015), and Back to Nature, Robert Bruno Gallery, New Orleans (2005).

Ron Bechet, For My Fathers, 2014. Charcoal on paper, 84 x 108 inches. Courtesy of the artist