Eric Fischl: Stories Told Special-Engagement Exhibition

Details

Eric Fischl: Stories Told brings together 40 large-scale works by the renowned figurative painter. Born in 1948, Eric Fischl grew up in Long Island, New York, and Phoenix, Arizona, where he attended Phoenix College and Arizona State University in the late 1960s. After studying under contemporary landscape painter Merrill Mahaffey, Fischl received his B.F.A. in 1972 as part of the first graduating class at the California Institute for the Arts (CalArts). During a time when new art forms and ideas reigned at CalArts, Fischl largely had to teach himself to paint in the traditional manner, studying early modern artists like Manet and Degas. Working with figurative painting and narrative content in the late 1970s, when it was decidedly out of favor in the art world, Fischl made his subject what he knew best: memories of suburban life and the nuclear family of his childhood.

Stories Told features work from the late 1970s to today, illuminating Fischl’s continued exploration of the human figure in fraught, ambiguous moments where social taboos, anxieties, family secrets, masculinity, unacknowledged privilege, the collision of the public and the private, and more bubble just below the surface. In addition to his international reputation, Fischl has made a profound impact on the Phoenix arts scene through longtime mentorship and philanthropic endeavors at Phoenix College, making this survey of his signature works a homecoming of sorts. Included with general admission, $28.

event website

Tags