Let Us Greet The Summer With Eric Fischl, Coming Soon To A PAFA Near You
Scenes from Late Paradise: The Stupidity, 2006-7. Oil on linen, 84 x 108 inches. Hall Art Foundation.
For the non-contemporary-art-inclined among you, let us Wiki: “Eric Fischl (born March 9, 1948) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker [... whose work reflects a childhood spent] ‘against a backdrop of alcoholism and a country club culture obsessed with image over content.’” And truly: We love his work with all of the same bones in our bodies that love Hockney’s A Bigger Splash and the music of Arthur Russell. It’s beautifully representational, but also languid and sad and just a little bit magic. We bring it up because “Dive Deep: Eric Fischl and the Process of Painting,” an exhibit of ten of Fischl’s major canvases along with other smaller works, is set to open at the Pennsylvania Academy Of The Fine Arts on June 29. As it happens, the work could not be more summer-y. Also, PAFA is air-conditioned and there’s a McDonald’s with cool, icy Coca-Cola on the corner. It is of these things that summer magic is made.
