The Westport Arts Center will host an exhibition of photographs and paintings by renowned artist Eric Fischl beginning July 10.
Fischl is considered one of the most influential figurative painters of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The opening reception will be held Friday, July 10 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. The exhibition will be on view through September 5, and is free and open to the public.
The showcased works are a unique aggregation of Fischl’s early photographs and paintings from 1982-2008, representing his distinct figurative style. Fischl will be at the opening reception and sign copies of his memoir, Bad Boy: My Life On and Off the Canvas (2013), written with Michael Stone. The book is an exploration of Fischl’s coming-of-age as an artist, the competitive art world and his creative process.
Curated by Helen Klisser During, the Westport Arts Center’s Artistic Director, the Eric Fischl Exhibition features 30 photographs and paintings curated from both the Hall Collection and the Eric Fischl Studio. The exhibition provides a rare opportunity to see the works outside of these collections. “We are so honored to have works coming directly from both the Hall Collection and the Eric Fischl Studio,” said Klisser During. “We look forward to having Eric Fischl here for the opening reception and for our ArtCafe conversation at 10 a.m. on July 10. The exhibition is a perfect show for the summer,” she added.
Fischl is known for his provocative narratives about human behavior, particularly the hidden activities of middle-class America, and for making private moments public. His work is focused on people – their bodies – and the associated complex relationship we have with our physicality. “As I moved into figuration, it became a far more complicated process because there’s so much you can’t get away with in painting figures, because they’re something we all know,” said Fischl as part of an interview included in the book Dive Deep: Eric Fischl and The Process of Painting, co-organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the San Jose Museum of Art in 2013. Included in the exhibition is his series of Saint Tropez (1982 – 1988) dye transfer photographs (1990) from the Hall Collection. This series exemplifies Fischl’s sense of voyeurism and his use of water as a recurrent theme, both the ocean as a symbol of life and the swimming pool as its domestic manifestation. “There are two kinds of painters, if you like,” Fischl said to The Guardian in 2014. “One is somebody like [Edward] Hopper who creates an image that burns on your retina and you never forget it. You can see it, walk away and still see it. [With] the other kind you are caught up in the authenticity of the energy. The believable moment. Jackson Pollock, you are right there with him. I am essentially the Hopper artist trying to create a frozen moment. The truth about how it actually was.”
Fischl was born in New York City in 1948 and grew up in the suburbs of Long Island. His suburban upbringing is considered integral to his focus on the rift between what was experienced, and what could not be said, in his early work. 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. His first solo show in New York City was at Edward Thorp Gallery in 1979 during a time when suburbia was not considered a legitimate genre for art. It was during this time that he first received critical attention for depicting the dark, disturbing undercurrents of mainstream American life. His style was in direct contrast to the conceptual and minimalist art that was popular at the time.
Fischl lives and works in Sag Harbor, NY with his wife, the painter April Gornik. Today, he counts Steve Martin and John McEnroe among his closest friends. After McEnroe opened a gallery in New York on his retirement, Fischl tutored him in art history in return for tennis lessons. In an interview with Steve Martin on KCET Radio (6/14), Fischl explained, “ I think it's one thing that painting does better than other mediums, is to sort of monumentalize people in portraiture. It fixes a time, it fixes a character in a way that is very different than, say, photography. Photography is fantastic at essentially glamorizing people. And painting, what I think is fantastic about it, is that it captures people but it also captures the artist capturing people so what you see in a painted portrait is a relationship.”
Fischl was also interviewed by actor Alec Baldwin as part of his “Here’s The Thing” series in August 2013. Baldwin questioned him about his creative process, to which Fischl responded, “I make a painting out of love, right? And a profound love, which includes respect, admiration, desire, need, all of the things that go into being a human, wanting to communicate to another human, and connect to another human. I call that love.”
For more information on the Eric Fischl Exhibition and other programs at the Westport Arts Center, visit www.westportartscenter.org.