“Handstand,” depicts three people on a beach who are, at least momentarily, alone together as an older man on a chaise lounge reads a magazine as a woman does a handstand and a young guy ambles distractedly through their midst. Here the sketchy ephemerality of the dye sublimation medium on mylar recalls that most of Fischl's images start out as photographs whose subjects he rearranges to suit the labyrinthine twists of his vision, so if similar figures turn up elsewhere it is not a total surprise. As individuals, the figures in “Family,” or “Poolside Loungers,” may be unique, but the paradoxes and disconcerting ambiguities of their lives are widely shared. In a unique work in poured resin, “Untitled,” top, five sunbathers appear in randomly awkward poses. Familiar yet remote, perhaps even to themselves, they embody the disjointed vulnerability of the world today while reflecting Fischl's belief, repeated in several recent interviews, that “Art should be embraced as a journey. Result-oriented, not product-based. Understood as a process and a dialogue with history, culture, and time.” ~Bookhardt / Eric Fischl: Recent Mixed Media Works, Through Jan. 26, 2019, Octavia Art Gallery, 454 Julia Street St., 309-4249.
Sunday, January 6, 2019
Eric Fischl at Octavia Art Gallery
“Handstand,” depicts three people on a beach who are, at least momentarily, alone together as an older man on a chaise lounge reads a magazine as a woman does a handstand and a young guy ambles distractedly through their midst. Here the sketchy ephemerality of the dye sublimation medium on mylar recalls that most of Fischl's images start out as photographs whose subjects he rearranges to suit the labyrinthine twists of his vision, so if similar figures turn up elsewhere it is not a total surprise. As individuals, the figures in “Family,” or “Poolside Loungers,” may be unique, but the paradoxes and disconcerting ambiguities of their lives are widely shared. In a unique work in poured resin, “Untitled,” top, five sunbathers appear in randomly awkward poses. Familiar yet remote, perhaps even to themselves, they embody the disjointed vulnerability of the world today while reflecting Fischl's belief, repeated in several recent interviews, that “Art should be embraced as a journey. Result-oriented, not product-based. Understood as a process and a dialogue with history, culture, and time.” ~Bookhardt / Eric Fischl: Recent Mixed Media Works, Through Jan. 26, 2019, Octavia Art Gallery, 454 Julia Street St., 309-4249.