Eric Fischl: Art Fair Paintings, Victoria Miro

‘Art Fair Paintings’ from the perspective of the spectator from American artist Eric Fischl. Victoria Miro presents his first solo exhibition for the start of Frieze London 2014

For those with living memory of the 1980’s, Eric Fischl, artist, is best remembered for his painting Bad Boy (1981), a canvas that Fischl himself describes as his "most famous and notorious painting". Since then Eric Fisch’s paintings have experimented with large-scale oil paintings of erotically charged scenes of the American suburbs, through which he attempts to exorcise the sexual and emotional angst of straight, white American males. 

Often described ironically as “bad paintings”, his canvases are characterized by a mixture of art-historical and popular sources, of real and irreverent content. Rather than focusing on accurate representation Fischl, like other “bad painters”, rejects traditional art canons and paints scenes that are humorous, yet touch a sensitive cord. Fischl has been controversial and often scandalous in his rejection of good taste. 

However, in recent years his paintings have evolved and become less erotically charged, though no less ambiguous, as he continues to focus on representing the human figure in complex scenarios.  

As the exhibition title suggests, this new series of paintings depicts art fairs and gallery openings from the point of view of the spectator. True to his methodology, the starting point for the works was a series of photographs taken by the artist at art fairs around the world. As a voyeuristic spectator, the viewer finds the business of art fairs unfolding in front of them, the eye moving from one character to another – gallerists, artists, buyers and casual browsers. Yet just like in real life the visitors remain ambiguous, easily mistaken for runway models, paying as much attention to their mobile phones as to the art on display.