ERIC FISCHL | RECENT WORKS

September 12 - October, 19, 2018

INTRO BY ADAM ADELSON

We 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 Boston