Girl with Doll 1987

Eric Fischl painted *Girl with Doll* using what looks like oil on canvas, and right away you can see it’s not about perfection, it's about the feel of a moment. The paint here is pretty thin, almost watery in places, which gives the whole thing a kind of hazy, dreamlike quality. Look at the way he’s handled the light around her body - it's not blended perfectly, you can see the brushstrokes, the little drips of paint going every which way. And, the doll! It's all smudged and blurred, like a half-forgotten memory. That yellow patch behind the girl, it’s not just background, it’s a mood, a feeling. The way Fischl lets the paint drip down from that yellow area, it reminds me of the way Francis Bacon would let things slide and smear, embracing the messiness of it all. It's like he’s saying, "Hey, life isn't clean, so why should art be?" It’s like he’s inviting you to feel something, not just see something.