Krefeld Project Living Room Scene 3 2002

This painting, ‘Krefeld Project Living Room Scene 3’, by Eric Fischl, it’s a stage set, maybe for a play. The man, the woman, and the composition are worked out through bold gestural marks, it’s all about the feel of the thing. The paint is layered thinly, so the surfaces of the figures retain a ghostly transparency, like memories. Look at the woman’s robe, for instance: Fischl pulls off a beautiful trick with the red fabric, it’s both flat and dimensional at the same time. He deploys a limited colour palette, which adds to the sense of eerie calm in the scene. It’s like a mash-up of Balthus, Philip Guston, and maybe even a bit of Edward Hopper in the emotional space. It’s so interesting, seeing how an artist like Fischl can synthesize his influences to produce an image that is both strange and strangely familiar.