Bad Boy 1981

Eric Fischl made this painting, Bad Boy, and the way he's handled the paint, it’s all part of the story. It feels like a process of thinking through making, like you’re watching him figure it out as he goes. The surface is really something—thick strokes, kind of raw, like he’s pushing the paint around. You can almost feel the physical act of painting, the push and pull. And the light! It’s so intense, hitting the figure on the bed, those blinds. The color choices are so vivid. Take the way the light falls on the figure, how he's carved out those stripes and how that effect relates to the blinds behind the boy. It’s not just about representation; it's about the tension between what we see and what we feel, the colors almost vibrating against each other. Fischl reminds me a bit of early Lucian Freud in the way he captures figures in intimate, often unsettling moments, but he’s pushing it further, into a more psychologically charged space. It’s a piece that revels in ambiguity, inviting us to bring our own interpretations to the table.