BeveRly Fishman june 11 – july 17, 2010
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front and back Cover detail: dark kandyland, 2010 right: dark kandyland, 2010 84" x 30" Acrylic and enamel on polished stainless steel far right: white kandyland, 2009 84" x 30" Acrylic and enamel on polished stainless steel
BeveRly Fishman june 11 – july 17, 2010
GalleRy DirectoRs David Eichholtz & Richard Barger
130 Lincoln Avenue, Suite D, Santa Fe, NM 87501 | p (505) 983-9555 | f (505) 983-1284 www.DavidRichardContemporary.com | info@DavidRichardContemporary.com
BeveRly Fishman: 2
F utuRe NatuRal David Richard Contemporary is pleased to present FUTURE NATURAL, a solo exhibition of new work by Beverly Fishman. We are also pleased to present this full-color catalog with an essay written by Kathy Battista that places Fishman’s work in the context of feminist and postminimalist artists. Fishman’s artistic practice comments on how medical data and different forms of scientific representation have increasingly become a part of our identities. They have the ability to define and confine us in many ways, such as manicdepressive, menopausal, obese, diabetic or hypertensive. Medical data is not only used to describe our ills, or lack of wills, but also to prescribe and perpetuate our growing reliance on medications to make us look, feel and perform better. However, the question is better than what and decided by whom? FUTURE NATURAL consists of two bodies of work in which the physicality and materiality, in terms of scale and experience, are an important aspect of the exhibition. In the front gallery, the fourteen paintings consist of psychedelic optical patterns of layered medical data, silkscreened in fluorescent-colored acrylic and enamel paint onto polished stainless steel. The four larger-than-life narrow verticals are hung low to the ground allowing us to see our entire reflections like a mirror through the barrage of medical data. Do we like the reflection we see? Do we even know the person we see? The four horizontal paintings are diptychs or triptychs, approximately 56 to 74.5 inches in height and 84 inches in length, that enable the reflections of multiple viewers to be captured and comingled with the data. The six smaller pieces capture just the head of the viewer. In the gallery’s project room, Fishman has installed seventy pill-shaped wall sculptures in a dizzying display of what looks like a fist-full of pills that had been thrown into the room and stuck to the walls. These pill sculptures are made of resin and phosphorescent pigments that glow in the dark. One’s favorite crutch will be recognized and the glow in the dark feature only enhances the soothing and lulling effect.
David Eichholtz and Richard Barger
BeveRly Fishman at
D avid Richard Contemporary by Kathy Battista You’ve got to climb Mount Everest to reach the Valley of the dolls.1 Oh is this the way they say the future’s meant to feel? Or just 20,000 people standing in a field. And I don’t quite understand just what this feeling is. But that’s okay ‘cause we’re all sorted out for E’s and wizz. And tell me when the spaceship lands ‘cause all this has just got to mean something.2 The post-war conception of the American
used feminist methodology, as witnessed in
female was largely tied to the domestic.
writers as diverse as Stuart Hall, Hal Foster
Household goods and conveniences, as ad-
and Paul Gilroy.
vertised by attractive women on television, were a sign of affluence, health and happi-
If one considers pharmaceuticals as another
ness. One’s status in society was largely tied
consumer commodity, this strikes an espe-
to what they owned, and women were the
cially poignant note. How have women been
ideal consumers. This paradigm of the per-
targeted by the advertising industry? How
fect housewife was deconstructed in feminist
many pills do we consume daily or annually?
ideology of the 1970s. Writers such as Betty
How much faith do we have in medicine and
Friedan, Germaine Greer and Kate Millett
pharmacology as panaceas for our myriad
analyzed the role of women with literature
of ills? The post-war cliché of ‘mother’s little
that became widely available and influential.
helpers’ and the iconic ‘Valley of the Dolls’
Gender, previously considered a fixed entity,
were nods to the increasing commodifica-
became subject to scrutiny that resulted in
tion of the pharmaceutical industry, and
an expanded, pluralistic view of male and
in particular its use by women. Drugs may
female. Writers on both sides of the Atlantic,
be seen as another consumer convenience,
including Parveen Adams, Judith Butler and
alongside the microwave, dishwasher or
Laura Mulvey, increasingly viewed gender as
vacuum cleaner.
a conditioned construction of one’s identity, incorporating physical, political and ideo-
The women’s movement also resulted in
logical constructs. This burgeoning interest
various effects on art practice: a rise in work
in identity paved the way for tangential dis-
related to themes such as the domestic,
ciplines—cultural studies, postmodernism,
women’s experience, and female biological
postcolonial studies, and queer theory—that
source imagery; an interest in exposing the
1. Jacqeline Susann, Valley of the Dolls, 1966. 2. Jarvis Cocker, ‘Sorted Out for E’s and wizz’ song lyrics, 1995.
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inequality among gender; and perhaps most
the constellation formed by the cluster of
importantly, questions around the notion of
forms mimics the view from a microscope.
identity. How do we form or measure iden-
This internalized view of the human body
tity? To what extent is identity implicit or is
does not refer to a specific person, but a
it socialized through society? The first wave
universal human condition. Fishman used
of feminist artwork witnessed in the 1970s
Xeroxes of human cell structures, and the
US made manifest these questions. For
titles suggest scientific, coded information.
example Judy Chicago’s flower paintings
The fear that every person feels regarding
drew inspiration from the biological aspects
what lurks within our body is made manifest
of womanhood.
here in the palette of the work. Saturated hues, including red, yellow, turquoise, purple
A subsequent generation of artists, whose
and black suggesting the visceral, dominate
work consists of a combination of installa-
this period of her work. In addition, the cel-
tion, sculpture and painting, took a more
lular conditions of replication and division,
opaque approach to feminist inquiry. Mate-
echoed in the use of the Xerox as medium,
rial became secondary to concept. Beverly
suggest the possibility for both deterioration
Fishman’s work is situated within this tra-
and renewal. This binary presents a cyclical
jectory. While educated at Philadelphia and
reading of birth and death as inevitable fates
Yale, Fishman was inspired and supported by
embodied in abstract terms.
prominent artists concerned with the feminist movement including Ree Morton, Judy
Indeed the tension between representation
Pfaff, and Elizabeth Murray. Other artists
and abstraction is an important element
interested in the investigation of the human
of Fishman’s work, and is reflected in the
body including Lynda Benglis, Laurie Ander-
obvious nod to the handspun in her prac-
son, Francis Bacon and Eva Hesse, were also
tice. Each formal constituent bears witness
important references.
to its making. In this sense one sees her work
the tension betWeen RepResentation and abstRaction is an impoRtant element of Fishman’s WoRK…
alongside artists like Hesse, Ross Bleckner and Philip Taafe. Hesse’s forms, at times anthropomorphic, were post-minimal abstract shapes; yet, the presence of the artist’s hand is found throughout her oeuvre. The same can be said of Bleckner or Taafe, who relied on pattern, but whose physical implication in the work is present in the surface of the painting. Fishman’s work finds its context in
Fishman’s work has long exhibited an inter-
these contemporaries who rejected the use
est in the human body, for example, N.L.B.W.
of sterile minimalist fabrication, but took
#1–156, 1997–1998 and P.I.L.L. # 1–189, 1998.
from their predecessors the interest in the
These take the form of wall-based installa-
repetition of forms and patterns.
tions of individual elements comprised of photo-based collage, acrylic and resin on
The oscillation between abstraction and fig-
wood. The idiosyncratic shapes of each com-
uration is seen in Fishman’s current series of
ponent resemble cell-like structures while
work. Her large-scale paintings, both vertical
P.I.L.L. #1–189, 1998
and horizontal in format, have become more mechanistic in character: what appear to be dot matrixes, hard-edged stripes and waving 5
linear forms that become almost topographical in places. They find their inspiration in DNA and QR codes, as well as medical measuring devices including EKGs and EEGs. The circular forms are derived from pills, both pharmaceutical and recreational. The paintings, while done by hand, bear relationship to the computer, which is used to sample and morph patterns and scientific imagery that is sourced on the Internet. Take for example Fishman’s Dark Kandyland 2010, a large-scale acrylic and enamel painting on polished steel. Vertical in format, the painting may be considered in two distinct sections: the top half, in which circular, ovoid and other pill-shaped forms float atop a pattern composed of black dots on the unpainted polished stainless steel background. Here the pills seem to levitate and hover above the pattern. The lower segment of the painting, with a composition of horizontal and vertical lines, as well as what looks like an electrocardiograph and genetic code, contrasts
segments. Similar to horizon lines, these
with the circular forms above. One might
paintings are split into thirds or halves and
describe the painting in terms of Platonic
suggest landscapes of graphic information.
order, with the mind existing literally above
Here the pills spill into the lower section,
the bodily. The top half also represents the
while barcodes and DNA helixes compete
‘cause’ and the bottom the effect: it’s the
with stripes and patterns to delirious effects.
pills, prescribed or otherwise, that would
The artist is masterful in her ability to strike a
make the heart race or the body relax. And
delicate balance between the webs of lines,
the straight lines call to mind the medical
networks of color and various shapes and
term of ‘flatlining’ when a patient is ebbing
layers. At times the paintings resemble the
away from life. Thus, Fishman’s metonymic
innards of a computer, which represents the
painting embodies this notion of cause and
primary medium through which we view the
effect in its dichotomy.
body today, for example with EKG patterns, sound waves, and genetic codes. While Fish-
Horizontal diptych and tripartite works
man’s paintings give the impression of ‘high
such as Dividose: Flour r.b.b.y, (2009), Sys-
technology’ with an almost futuristic sheen
tem Overload (2009-2010) and Barcode.
deriving from the polished steel, upon closer
helix.eeg (2010) also divide into discrete
inspection one can see the marks of the
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artist’s hand. Fishman wants the viewer to
of forms and patterns, suggest so much
see the imperfections, which may be read
movement that they take on a hallucinatory
as a reflection of the human condition. This
nature. For example the horizontal diptych
harks back to the idea of identity, with each
Untitled, (Kandyland Series), 2010 is com-
painting symbolic of a composite of individu-
prised of bright pinks, orange, citrus green
als rather than a mechanized template. How-
and magenta. These colors, which may be
ever, the idea of the construction of identity
read as reflecting the use of neon in signage,
through medical, scientific and pharmaceu-
suggest the urban condition. City living
tical terms, may be read as a continuation of
demands two different lives, one’s daytime
the feminist interest in the formation of self,
and nighttime personas, the latter of which
both in physical and psychological terms.
may require recreational drugs to sustain.
Fishman’s inteRest in pills…is linKed to…the psycholoGical and physical effects RendeRed by these small but omnipotent objects. The scale of these new paintings, which are
The use of drugs in art is not a new concept.
slightly larger than life-sized, is an important
There is an entire literature based on opiate
aspect of the work. At eighty- four inches
experiences and one need only think of Dali
high, in the vertical works—Acid Kandyland
or 1960s psychedelia to understand how
#1 and #2 (2010), White Kandyland (2009),
drugs have been used to foster the creative
and Dark Kandyland (2010)—the viewer can
impulse. In more recent years Fred Toma-
partially see her reflection in the works due
selli’s paintings contain pills and marijuana
to the highly polished stainless steel. The
leaves and Damien Hirst’s medicine cabi-
affect varies according to each work, as the
nets use pills as found objects. Tomaselli’s
denser compositions render just a shadow
layering of substances, both legal and ille-
of the viewer while looser compositions
gal, within layers of resin, uses the actual ob-
result in a sharper image. They do not serve
jects themselves to create networks. Hirst’s
as mirrors, rather like vestiges of the viewer
pharmaceuticals, while also concerned with
projected on to the painting, reflecting the
the consumer driven drug industry, retain a
nebulous identity of the pills and charts.
sterile, distant feeling. Fishman’s interest in
Thus, the artist implicates us all within her
pills, in contrast to her colleagues above, is
work, much like Op Art’s dizzying effects.
linked to how we measure identity, to the
The unsettling experience of viewing a
state of our minds and bodies, and to the
Bridget Riley or Victor Vasarely comes to
psychological and physical effects rendered
mind here.
by these small but omnipotent objects. She embraces pharmaceuticals as a form of rep-
The palette of this new body of work draws
resentation, both of the body and mind, as
largely upon day-glo and fluorescent col-
well as our urban, over programmed lives.
ors. This produces several effects. First,
Despite the promise that modern medicine
the paintings are never static. The colors,
holds, we are all still mortal beings, frustrat-
combined with the dynamic juxtaposition
ed, unable to sleep, anxious or unwell.
Another difference between Fishman and
The pill series, while sculptural, are con-
those artists referenced above is the im-
sistent with Fishman’s earlier work. They
portance of the handcraft in her work. This
employ modernist tactics in that although
is perhaps most evident in another body
the shapes of the pills are derived from the
of work presented in ‘Future Natural’. This
actual items found in the world, each pill is
series consists of smaller wall-based sculp-
individual, hand cast from a wooden mold.
tures that use phosphorescent pigment to
No two are identical as Fishman varies
make them glow in the dark. The pills ref-
them by using different colors, both on the
erenced here, as in the paintings described
surface and the phosphorescent pigment
above, are derived from actual drugs. Phar-
underneath, which makes them glow. As you
maceuticals such as Valium®, Klonopin®,
encounter the pills the viewer can see small
Haldol® and Fosamax® sit alongside vari-
inconsistencies and marks from the casting
ous incarnations of the recreational Ecstasy.
process. The artist relishes in these small
The latter has famously taken various forms,
anomalies, which subvert the mechanical
including iconic imprints such as the heart,
processes by which real pharmaceuticals
skull, smiley face, and now even Homer
are made. The pills are also modular. While
Simpson. The irony in Fishman’s work is that
one can stand alone as a sculptural work,
the pills begin to blur together. For example,
they can also be grouped in the same way
the moose imprinted on a pill for diabetes
that her earlier cellular installations or the
(Prandin®) could easily be read as an Ecsta-
latest polished steel paintings can work
sy tablet. Perhaps the icon most indicative
together in dialogue.
of this is the Superman logo—an ‘S’ in an upside down triangle—which has appeared
When seen as a holistic entity ‘Future Natu-
on both Ecstasy and Parkinson’s medication
ral’ reflects several of Fishman’s abiding
with very little difference in rendering. Here
themes. Her interest in the history of paint-
Fishman’s point is well taken—whatever
ing and sculpture as fetishized objects is
one’s poison is, medical or recreational—the
seen in the materials and palettes of the
desired effects are the same and their mar-
paintings as well as the pills. They call to
keting is frighteningly similar.
mind references as diverse as Richter’s mirror paintings and early Warhol drawings.
The pills may be read as a critique of the se-
The artist’s interest in science, which is
duction, especially of women, of advertising
always concerned with reimaging our body
in today’s culture. Here both medical and
through the development of new technol-
homemade science seduces the consumer.
ogy, as a seductive force in all our lives, re-
One takes a pill, which is in its original solid
lates to the theme of how we consume and
state. This then dissolves and becomes
are consumed by advertising. And finally,
vaporous. The latter state is reflected in the
Fishman’s early training under feminist and
glowing backgrounds. Here again Fishman
postminimalist artists is reflected in this cur-
invokes signage and the language of graphic
rent work. How is one’s identity, in particular
design in her work.
female identity, transposed and interpreted through science? And how is science in turn influencing or changing our identity? The future seems anything but natural here.
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untitled (Kandyland series), 2010 56 3/4" x 84" Acrylic and enamel on polished stainless steel
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detail: Acid Kandyland #2, 2010 84" x 26" Acrylic and enamel on polished stainless steel
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Acid Kandyland #1, 2010
Acid Kandyland #2, 2010
84" x 26" Acrylic and enamel on polished stainless steel
84" x 26" Acrylic and enamel on polished stainless steel
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System overload, 2010 58 3/4" x 84" Acrylic and enamel on polished stainless steel
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Dividose: flour r.b.b.y, 2009 56 3/4" x 84" Acrylic and enamel on polished stainless steel
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Barcode.helix.eeg, 2010 74 1/2" x 84" Acrylic and enamel on polished stainless steel
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Untitled (Kandyland Series 2), 2010
Untitled (Kandyland Series 3), 2010
26" x 18" Acrylic and enamel on polished stainless steel
26" x 18" Acrylic and enamel on polished stainless steel
Untitled (Kandyland Series 1), 2009 and
Untitled (Kandyland Series Pink), 2009 and
Untitled (Kandyland Series Green), 2009
Untitled (Kandyland Series 1), 2010
26" x 18" Acrylic and enamel on polished stainless steel
26" x 18" Acrylic and enamel on polished stainless steel
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Untitled (Pharmako Series 7, 32, 14, 17, 19, 10, 1, 15, 30, 24, 23, 21, 25, 28, 3, 8, 4, 26), 2009-2010 (5" x 10" x 1.5" to 9" x 9" x 3") Hand poured resin and phosphorescent pigment, Various sizes, Installation view
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Untitled (Pharmako Series 9), 2010 and
Untitled (Pharmako Series 13), 2009 and
Untitled (Pharmako Series 2), 2010
Untitled (Pharmako Series 12), 2010
Hand poured resin and phosphorescent pigment,
Hand poured resin and phosphorescent pigment,
In the light
In the light
Untitled (Pharmako Series 9), 2010 and
Untitled (Pharmako Series 13), 2009 and
Untitled (Pharmako Series 2), 2010
Untitled (Pharmako Series 12), 2010
Hand poured resin and phosphorescent pigment,
Hand poured resin and phosphorescent pigment,
Glowing in the dark
Glowing in the dark
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Untitled (Pharmako Series 29), 2010 and
Untitled (Pharmako Series 5), 2010 and
Untitled (Pharmako Series 20), 2010
Untitled (Pharmako Series 6), 2010
Hand poured resin and phosphorescent pigment,
Hand poured resin and phosphorescent pigment,
Glowing in the dark
Glowing in the dark
Untitled (Pharmako Series 29), 2010 and
Untitled (Pharmako Series 5), 2010 and
Untitled (Pharmako Series 20), 2010
Untitled (Pharmako Series 6), 2010
Hand poured resin and phosphorescent pigment,
Hand poured resin and phosphorescent pigment,
In the light
In the light
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B eveRly Fishman 24
Beverly Fishman received her BFA from the
Award (2003), National Endowment for the
Philadelphia College of Art in 1977, and her
Arts Fellowship Grant (1989), Artist Space
Master of Fine Arts from Yale University in
Grant (1986/1990), and two Ford Founda-
1980. She subsequently taught at the Col-
tion Grants (1979).
lege of New Rochelle, New York, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and Cranbrook
Her work has been reviewed and profiled
Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michi-
in numerous art magazines, newspapers,
gan, where she has been Artist-in-Residence
and scholarly publications, the most recent
and Head of Painting since 1992.
of which include the Wall Street Journal
Since 2000, Fishman has had nearly two-
Maria Stafford’s Echo Objects: The Cognitive
dozen one-person exhibitions at galleries
History of Images (2007), and Joe Houston
(2009), Art in America (2008), Barbara
in New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Thessa-
and Dave Hickey’s Optic Nerve: Perceptual
loniki, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles.
Art of the 1960s (2007).
Her work has also been included in many thematic exhibitions addressing abstraction,
Her work may be found in many public col-
technology, medicine, and the body. Recent
lections including the Toledo Art Museum,
exhibitions include Infinitesimal Eternity:
the Miami Art Museum, the Columbus Muse-
Making Images in the Face of Spectacle,
um of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, the Stam-
Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT; Op Art:
ford Museum and Nature Center, Cranbrook
Then and Now at the Columbus Museum in
Art Museum, the Kresge Art Museum, Maxine
Ohio; and Dreaming of a More Better Future
and Stuart Frankel Foundation for Art, and
at the Cleveland Art Institute Gallery.
the United Nations Embassy in Istanbul. She is also included in the corporate collections
Ms. Fishman has been awarded numer-
of Hallmark, Inc., the Progressive Art Col-
ous honors including a Hassam, Speicher,
lection, Compuware, UBS Financial Services
Betts, and Symons Purchase Award from
Inc., Daimler-Chrysler Corporation, Cantor
the American Academy of Arts and Let-
Fitzgerald, and Prudential Life Insurance,
ters (2010), Guggenheim Fellowship Award
among others.
(2005), Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation
Photo credits: Shell Hensleigh: paintings Richard Barger: resin sculptures Travis Roozee: portrait of Beverly Fishman
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ISBN 978-0-9827872-0-5 Price $10.00
2626
130 Lincoln Avenue, Suite D, Santa Fe, NM 87501 | p (505) 983-9555 | f (505) 983-1284 www.DavidRichardContemporary.com | info@DavidRichardContemporary.com