Art Blog

New Exhibit: 'Eric Fischl: Beach Life' - By Stacey Goergen (Hamptons Magazine)

"The beach is a place that is absolutely voyeuristic," says artist Eric Fischl, describing his use of the motif as a backdrop to his paintings. "I first started painting the beach after having visited, and then for many years frequenting, the beaches in St-Tropez. The French are wonderfully voyeuristic and exhibitionist, as well, so that was a revelation. It's a place where people let their guard down, so what you get is a kind of body language that is both intimate and socialized."

Speaking from his North Haven home about his retrospective at Guild Hall, Eric Fischl: Beach Life, the amiable, articulate artist talks of the importance of capturing fleeting gestures. It was this masterful depiction of nuanced body language in taut, psychological scenes that catapulted Fischl to fame in the early 1980s, as his figurative paintings helped forge a renewed interest in the genre.

Describing the way he approaches a new work, Fischl says, "You see somebody doing something. They are bending over a certain way or twisting a certain way, and it's a provocative, evocative gesture." Photographing these poses first, Fischl then works in Adobe Photoshop to create a collage with images. Although he may begin with a certain motion, the process of creating the painting or sculpture arises from the series of questions raised by this initial physical expression. "What is this person doing? Are they bending over to tie a shoe or bending over because they tripped? Are they turning away from something or turning toward something? Is there anyone else in the picture?" Fischl asks. "I keep projecting possible scenarios, and there is a certain point at which the gesture really begins to make sense. It starts to create an emotional, psychological dynamic. That is what I am going for." Because he is working through each painting to a resolution, Fischl works on one canvas at a time, from start to finish

Read more at http://hamptons-magazine.com/lifestyle/articles/new-exhibit-eric-fischl-beach-life#GBBVzfksdgrTI21a.99