An exhibition of new paintings by American artist Eric Fischl opens at Skarstedt gallery near Green Park Station on Thursday (1 March). The show examines the artist’s central theme (and title of the show, “Presence of an Absence” via seven large canvas works that provoke the more you ponder them.
There’s a foreboding quality to the paintings, usually juxtaposed against intimate and otherwise pleasant settings filled with bright daylight with (just) enough of a ‘presence of an absence’ to allow the viewer to fill in the gaps of some sort of off kilter storylines and shadowy, fleeting moments that Fischl captures in “discovered” depictions of what he calls “transitional spaces.”
I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to insert myself into this morning’s press preview guided by the artist. I found the better pieces in the show (of no bad pieces) to represent strongly what Fischl described during the preview as his definition of grace: “execution and intention happening simultaneously.”
Free Trump as Clown Posters
For the duration of the exhibition, a free poster of President Trump with the red nose of a clown will be available to gallery goers. Taken from a series of iPad “paintings” by Fischl of Trump and his cabinet, the image also makes an appearance in the background of his painting titled Worry, which is on display as part of the show.
Says Fischl about the poster and the show:
Clowns are sinister and anarchistic. They represent chaos and disharmony… As an artist I want to find ways to get past the rhetoric and the divisions that are tearing us apart and through the quiet looking at art, create a space for contemplating what we all share.
Eric Fischl: Presence of an Absence opens 1 March and runs until 26 May at Skarstedt, 8 Bennet Street, SW1A 1RP. Find out more at skarstedt.com.
