Eric Fischl Untitled, 2008

Jablonka Gallery is pleased to present new works by American artist Eric Fischl. Born in 1948 in New York, Eric Fischl became one of the leading figures in the revival of painting in the 1980s. His relentless unmasking of subjects through a snap-shot approach presents unheroic yet compelling stories about the inner lives of the American middle-class. Today his work appears in prominent museums all over the world, such as the Guggenheim, the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Basel Kunsthalle and ICA London. Although Fischl paints figuratively, he is no naturalist. In his paintings, the scenes are elaborately constructed and possess a strong filmic and theatrical character. The scenes and narratives range from the American suburbs, India and Rome, and back again to New York, his place of birth.

His current work in this present exhibition now enters Spanish territories and deals with the centuries-old tradition of the bull fight, more precisely with the Corrida goyesca de Ronda, a type of bull fight in the Andalusian city of Ronda close to Málaga, which was founded by Antonio Ordoñez in 1954, one of the most famous bull fighters of modern times. Once a year, the corrida goyesa takes place there, employing the traditional colourful clothing, decoration and trappings of the style and era of Goya. Since the 1970s, Eric Fischl has been creating his compositions by using photographs that serve him as a guide for paintings, and such is the case for the present series. According to his own statement, „photograph slices moments so thinly that it actually shows us the invisible world.“ By using the same type of photographic model, he now deals with the bull fight, a topic that since its creation in the 18th century has always captivated artists, from Goya to Hemingway and Picasso. However, Fischl treats it in his own style and manner: in the large-sized paintings, the protagonists are standing in light-flooded settings typical for Fischl, with strong, luminous colours, and contrasts created by the interaction between light and shadow, between the harsh Mediterranean light and the deep foreboding shadows.

The Corrida paintings will subsequently be shown in New York and at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo in Málaga.

Eric Fischl. Corrida Paintings (1.5.-15.7.2009). www.jablonkagalerie.com