cover image Eric Fischl: Paintings and Drawings 1979-2001

Eric Fischl: Paintings and Drawings 1979-2001

Gijs Van Tuyl. Hatje Cantz Publishers, $35 (136pp) ISBN 978-3-7757-1379-5

In 1979, Eric Fischl unleashed an uproar with his large-scale oil painting Sleepwalker, which depicted a teenage boy masturbating in a kiddie pool. As more than one essay points out in this slender catalogue of 30 years of the American artist's work, the art world assailed not the figure's behavior but the figure itself. Van Tuyl has assembled writings by Peter Schjeldahl, Carolin Bohlmann and Annelie Lutgens, among other scholars and critics, that delve into Fischl's artistic development. The lively, accessible essays discuss his focus on the body, preparatory use of photography, shifting qualities of light, snapshot affinity for fleeting moments, and the scandalized outcry when Fischl rejected conceptualism and abstract expressionism for unabashed narrative. An interview with the artist proves him to be candid and articulate about his oeuvre and painting in general. But it is the work itself--the early glassine overlays, the now famous suburban tableaus, multi-paneled paintings from the mid-80s, images from India and Rome, and deceptively simple watercolors--that is most eloquent, speaking to deeply private experiences of alienation, shame and mystery as told by a gestural style rich in contrast and color. This volume takes the measure of a vital contemporary artist and a contentious moment in American art history. 63 color and 30 b&w reproductions.