Untitled 2001

Eric Fischl made this untitled painting, on paper, with watercolor. What a messy, marvelous scene! Brown and blue pigments swim across the page, forming figures that bend and reach. I imagine Fischl, leaning over the paper, coaxing these forms into being. See how the colors bleed and blend? It's like he's letting the water do the work, guiding it just enough to suggest bodies in motion. There's a tension here between control and surrender, intention and accident. It’s a little like Philip Guston's paintings in that way. And what are these figures doing? Are they dancing, wrestling, dreaming? That dark wash of blue defines the negative space as much as the figures themselves. The gesture communicates the feeling of bodies intertwined, pushing and pulling against each other. Ultimately, painting’s about finding the unexpected, letting the medium lead you somewhere new. Fischl's painting reminds us that art is a conversation, an ongoing exchange between artist, medium, and viewer.