Girl with Doll 1987

Eric Fischl made this painting, Girl with Doll, with oils on canvas. It is a very moving work. I imagine Fischl, mixing his browns, ochres and yellows—building up the figure and background in layers. See how the paint drips down in vertical rivulets? I wonder if it was a very hot day? There’s a real tension in it, an awkwardness in the girl's stance, and the vacant stare. Her doll is almost like a burden—a monkey on her back. Fischl often explores suburban angst in his work. Like a photographer such as Nan Goldin, he uses painting to examine charged psychological moments. This work also reminds me of the paintings of Lucian Freud, in its unflinching gaze and depiction of the human form. Artists have always borrowed, stolen, and built upon each other's ideas. Like one long conversation. And isn’t that, after all, what painting is? A way to embrace ambiguity and uncertainty. A starting point for a conversation.