September 12 - October, 19, 2018
INTRO BY ADAM ADELSONWe live in a culture obsessed with vanity, and more often than not, people wear masks to feel accepted by their peers. As a society, we’re becoming increasingly vain. For most young people, an over-reliance on feedback from social media dictates their level of self-confidence. If, for example, they’re used to getting 10 “likes,” but only receive 5, they’re crushed; alternatively, if they receive 15 “likes,” they feel a rush of celebrity. It’s an unfortunate but true cultural reality – hiding one’s real humanity behind veils to appear idyllic and flawless in an endless search for validation and acceptance. Ultimately, social media – a vehicle meant for connection –is a phenomenon that disconnects their users from others and themselves. If we want to seek a more proportional view of what makes us human, we need to look at Art. Throughout his career, Eric Fischl has been on a quest to portray the human body, stripped of all its concealments.
“Art is cultural glue. It binds us to each other by revealing what it is we share, what we have in common on the most intimate levels of our being”
Over the years, I have become familiar with Eric Fischl as a modern-day flâneur – an observer of life. The great French art critic, Louis Edmond Duranty coined the term “flâneur” to describe the 19th century painters that observed and recorded daily life, notably the Impressionists. This subject was unconventional for the time. These artists were not interested in setting a scene, or creating a false narrative; rather, they focused their attention on individuals around them performing routine functions and interactions. Fischl takes this concept to a new level by working from hundreds of spontaneous photographs that he captures to compose scenes that fixes a moment in time with people, often strangers, who are unaware that their forms are being recorded.
Fischl’s art reflects how people exist in the world, not just how they pose in front of cameras. The artist seems to have an interest in discovering the true nature in people, and depicts them unapologetically. His artworks have explored themes of sexuality, voyeurism, death, intimacy, and many other aspects of the human condition. Ever since Fischl exploded onto the art scene with his retrospective at the Whitney Museum of Art (New York) in 1986, viewers have recognized his talent and related to his portrayals of the human form. Our exhibition brings together some of his recent work, which explores the human body and it’s relationship to others through new media – glass, resin, and Mylar sheets.
Fischl’s use of Mylar, glass, and resin facilitate the artist’s desire to seek truth in strangers and reflect their commonalities to the outside world. The transparent nature of Mylar and glass represents his drive to see through people, metaphorically. Fischl seems to use transparent materials as a reminder to his viewers that their body language reflects what they’re feeling inside. And despite the societal masks we might wear, it’s often easy to see through someone’s deceptions. One can hide behind words, but it’s difficult to fake a smile.
“The relationship between the body and the person is riveting to watch. You can tell through body language how comfortable or insecure a person is with themselves and others. Body language is like a window into the soul and the transparency of both the watercolor and glass casting of this work became a physical manifestation of that idea.”
~Eric Fischl
When painting on canvas, an artist must construct a composition then refine the characters. The opposite is true in the collage approach that Fischl uses for his pinned Mylar sheets and poured resin work. After individually creating each character with unique personalities, the artist plays around with spacing the figures, fitting them together like puzzle pieces. He layers edges of the Mylar prints over each other to achieve the right distance between the individuals: far enough away to appear realistic but close enough to imply connection with one another. The separate pieces come together after each has been observed independently, and the combination reveals a narrative.
Pinned Mylar
65 x 90 1/2 inches
“Collage…is an artificial construct that imitates how the mind works. It breaks down the world of images into fragments of memory torn from their original context.”
In all of Fischl’s creations, he represents body language that speaks coherently to the viewer. One can intuitively relate to their natural postures. Without noticing, I sometimes mirror the body position in one of Fischl’s painted figures, and immediately feel as if I’ve inhabited that character’s place, or I’m standing next to them. I slouch my shoulders, relax my jaw, as my arms hang down by my sides. The characters and I look curiously at the boy digging a hole in the sand – neither the child nor adult knows or cares why he is digging, but we are present in that moment. We are connected by our mutual admiration for the simplicity of childhood.
The beach is a perfect venue to observe human interaction. Everyone is acutely aware that they are wearing far less clothing than usual, and this near-nakedness brings vulnerability into each movement. One’s composure changes when they notice a spectator, as they start to compare their physique to their voyeur’s. In recognizing this fact, Fischl seems to use nudity or near-nudity to illuminate that we are all the same, even if our fears manifest in different ways.
In studying Fischl’s representations, I am struck by his rendering of the human form. In wild, deliberate brushstrokes, he conveys cues that suggest emotive vocabularies. We experience emotions through shared body language. Although our circumstances are all different, we are connected through the sensations that all humans feel. We seek love, but often experience fear, lust, envy, remorse, boredom, excitement, and a spectrum of others. Fischl successfully identifies the physical manifestations of these feelings, and expresses them in a way that allows his viewers an opportunity to find empathy among others and themselves.
Adam Adelson Director Adelson Galleries BostonIhave long been an admirer of Eric Fischl’s paintings. But as an art dealer, I have also been a great admirer of how, over a 30-year period, Eric has stayed so relevant within the contemporary conversation. Despite an age where clever ideas and shiny objects dominate the new contemporary art landscape, Eric’s figurative paintings continue to cut through. Major museum exhibitions are being organized for his work, international dealers are mounting shows, and important collectors are still vying for paintings. I found this to be an incredible accolade for Eric and his more traditional approach to art making and it was one of the aspects that intrigued me most when we first met in the summer of 2011. It was a late August afternoon when I first made my way up the long flight of stairs to Eric’s Soho studio. He greeted me warmly and immediately disarmed me with his grounded sensibility and quick wit, a defining trait that I would find ingratiates him with everyone he meets.
UNTITLED DIPTYCH 2013
Unique mixed-media composition: hand-painting with digital pigment prints on acetate in poured resin 60 x 80 inches
We sat and talked midst a myriad of Fischl’s lush oil paintings in various stages of completion, as well watercolors revealing figures turning and bending in an ethereal and translucent starkness. To my great surprise there was also a collection of sculpture scattered throughout the studio that felt as if Giacometti had secretly reworked the surfaces of Michelangelo’s robust figures, and then twisted and unbalanced them in off-kilter expressions.
I was there to not only learn more about Eric and his practice, but also to speak with him about a grand vision he had for bringing important contemporary art to underserved communities around the country. The project was called “America Now and Here.” It was intended as the creative community’s response to American life in our Post-9/11 world and was an opportunity for artists to impact the narrative that, for so many years, had been hijacked by the media and politicians. It was proposed to be delivered via trucks caravanning into rural locales where they would unpack and form a contemporary “art circus” (for lack of a better description) in which all could participate. The idea was democratic in its approach and fundamentally American in its roots, but layered with access to content that would spark new conversations. It was an artistic vision on the grandest scale and, needless to say, I was all in.
For Eric, the bridge from abstraction to figuration came in the form of figures drawn on clear acetates. He would create a cast of characters on various sheets of acetates or vellum, then create a livable environment for them, finally shuffling the figures around until he landed on a composition that sparked a narrative… This process of collaging became the backbone to his entire artistic practice.
However, as our conversation unfolded, my eyes were locked just beyond Eric’s right shoulder on one of the most compelling bronze works I had ever seen. It was a maquette, but its power was monumental. Its expression was as grand as the conversation we were having about “America Now and Here,” but its impact felt intimate in a way hadn’t experienced before. The piece was titled Tumbling Woman and embodied everything we had been discussing. The work depicted a female rolling headlong on her shoulders like a tumbleweed blowing across the American West, with her arm outstretched and her hand open. “She is us, we are all tumbling along here.” Eric explained of our post 9/11 experience, “but my hope is that someone will reach out to hold her hand and help stop this motion.” The duality of such a work was the moment I began to fully understand Eric Fischl.
As Adam Adelson has conveyed so eloquently in his accompanying essay, Eric Fischl is about those intimate moments of being human. He is about those thin slices of time, wherein a fleeting tenth of a second we might catch a glimpse of who one truly is and how they hold themselves against the world. We see both the inner dialog one has with themselves and how that connects them to others, or, as the case may be in many Fischl works, how this disconnects them from the external world. Taken at a macro level, this idea can be applied broadly to such topics as nationalism, religion, and Fischl’s hallmark iconography surrounding the underbelly of suburban American life. We also find it deeply rooted in his beach paintings where the taboo of nudity rubs up against the seemingly benign ideal of family leisure as figures make their way across the beaches of St. Barts, St. Tropez or The Hamptons. Fischl’s ability to bring you into life’s most intimate moments, yet thrust you onto a grander stage is, in my opinion, one of the key aspects to his continued longevity.
UNTITLED (ARCHING WOMAN) 2012 Cast glass 24 1/2 x 9 x 11 inches 4/10
My collaboration with Eric Fischl began by exploring new mediums and techniques not previously available to artists, which would allow him to reimagine his collage process while utilizing a repertoire of new and old imagery.
Interestingly, these ideas are far afield from Fischl’s early beginnings as an abstract painter. He spent years searching for his artistic voice after leaving CalArts alongside his classmates Ross Bleckner, David Salle, and Gary Lang. Abstraction could not hold Fischl’s appetite for something more connective and he began exploring figuration, which, at the time, held no real ground within contemporary art. Artists were moving as quickly as they could toward deconstruction, while Eric turned the other way. For Eric, the bridge from abstraction to figuration came in the form of figures drawn on clear acetates. Eric would create a cast of characters on various sheets of acetates or vellum, then create a livable environment for them, finally shuffling the figures around until he landed on a composition that sparked a narrative. He was hooked and, over the last 30 years, this process of collaging became the backbone to his entire artistic practice.
As an art dealer, I love process. So, as Eric and I became closer we had many discussions about his unique approach. I could feel how critical this process was to his output and how passionate he was about its pursuit. My role with artists has always been to identify their areas of passion and provide opportunities for them to explore these areas more fully. Additionally, it is my responsibility to provide them access to new materials and mediums that allow them to push their passion in new directions.
My collaboration with Eric Fischl began by exploring new mediums and techniques not previously available to artists, which would allow him to reimagine his collage process while utilizing a repertoire of new and old imagery. Printmaking techniques had advanced so much that it was now possible to print vibrant imagery on clear acetates. Digital technology had also opened up the possibility of isolating figures from past work and collaging them together with new characters painted at that very moment in the studio. This convergence of digital capabilities and traditional “analog” art-making revealed a back-to-the-future moment that unlocked an entirely new body of work for the artist, first in Mylar collages assembled within layers of cast resin, and later in layered pinned Mylar collages.
Other artistic possibilities opened up alongside these works, such as advancements in cast glass and clear acrylic, which allowed for solid figures to be poured in complex configurations with flawless and transparent materials. Eric saw the way this could connect his sculptural figures to the translucent images from his watercolor paintings and, suddenly, a new dialog was formed between two and three dimensions.
This recent flurry of artistic exploration has also presented an unintended consequence for those collectors interested in acquiring Fischl’s work but who were not in the market for the mid-six-to-seven figure prices of his paintings. Suddenly, the clock had been turned back and significant work by Eric Fischl could be acquired for prices not seen since his early rise to fame in the late ’70s and early ’80s. It has been an exciting opportunity for those lucky enough to participate, and a personally gratifying moment to simultaneously unlock this creativity for the artist and this value for his collectors.
Eric Fischl continues to cut against the grain of the contemporary world, but ironically he has embraced some of today’s most advanced art-making techniques to take figuration to new levels of artistic expression. My hope is that all who view this new body of work connect with it on the most intimate level, find themselves within it, and gain a further understanding of who we are both individually and within the grander vision of the world.
Bob Chase President and owner Hexton Gallery
Eric Fischl is an internationally acclaimed American painter and sculptor. His artwork is represented in many distinguished museums throughout the world and has been featured in over one thousand publications. His extraordinary achievements throughout his career have made him one of the most influential figurative painters of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Fischl was born in 1948 in New York City and grew up in the suburbs of Long Island. He began his art education in Phoenix, Arizona where his parents had moved in 1967. He attended Phoenix College and earned his B.F.A. from the California Institute for the Arts in 1972. He then spent some time in Chicago, where he worked as a guard at the Museum of Contemporary Art. In 1974, he moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to teach painting at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Fischl had his first solo show, curated by Bruce W. Ferguson, at Dalhousie Art Gallery in Nova Scotia in 1975 before relocating to New York City in 1978.
Fischl’s suburban upbringing provided him with a backdrop of alcoholism and a country club culture obsessed with image over content. His early work thus became focused on the rift between what was experienced and what could not be said. His first New York City solo show was at Edward Thorp Gallery in 1979, during a time when suburbia was not considered a legitimate genre for art. He first received critical attention for depicting the dark, disturbing undercurrents of mainstream American life.
Fischl’s paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints have been the subject of numerous solo and major group exhibitions and his work is represented in many museums, as well as prestigious private and corporate collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modem Art in New York City, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, St. Louis Art Museum, Louisiana Museum of Art in Denmark, MusÈe Beaubourg in Paris, The Paine Weber Collection, and many others. Fischl has collaborated with other artists and authors, including E.L. Doctorow, Allen Ginsberg, Jamaica Kincaid, Jerry Saltz and Frederic Tuten. Eric Fischl is also the founder, President and lead curator for America: Now and Here. This multidisciplinary exhibition of 150 of some of Americaís most celebrated visual artists, musicians, poets, playwrights, and filmmakers is designed to spark a national conversation about American identity through the arts. The project launched on May 5th, 2011 in Kansas City before traveling to Detroit and Chicago.
Eric Fischl is a Fellow at both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Science. He lives and works in Sag Harbor, NY with his wife, the painter April Gornik.
exhibition
September 12 - October, 19, 2018
This exhibition organized together with Hexton Gallery, Chicago / Aspen. info@hextongallery.com.
Adelson Galleries Boston
520 Harrison Avenue Boston, MA 02118
617.832.0633
www.adelsongalleriesboston.com
Cover: Two Women and Boy, 2017, Detail
Back Cover: Handstand, 2017
Inside Front Cover: Digging Boy, 2017, Detail
Inside Back Cover: Poolside Loungers, 2018, Detail
© 2018 Adelson Galleries Boston
Designed by Alexander Stevovich
Printed by
