Eric Fischl, Untitled, 2001, watercolor on Paper, 16 5/8 x 10 3/8 inches.
The Eden Rock Gallery in Saint Barths’ “Water/Bodies” exhibition opened on December 21, 2009. Amongst those participating in the show, which includes the work of 10 students from the New York Academy of Art, is renowned artist Eric Fischl, also a critic for the academy. Fischl, a New York native, began his art studies in Arizona and later moved to Chicago where by working at a museum his love for art grew even more. Whitewall got to ask Fischl a few questions about his career and participation in the show which will close on January 31st 2010.
WHITEWALL: After having completed your studies in California, you moved to Chicago and became a guard at the Museum of Contemporary Art. What was that like and in what way – if at all – did it influence you as an artist?
ERIC FISCHL: Working as a guard was a great experience. The MCA was a small intimate museum at that time and the staff did many different things to keep it running. I was a guard, receptionist, and installer during my two years there. Handling art and living with it , what could be more enriching? Shows were up for months at a time so you could really focus on specific pieces and delve into the subtleties and nuances of each work. Because I was known by the docents as an artist they would ask me what things meant. I would deliberately tell them crazy interpretations of work and then listen as my interpretations would be woven into their descriptions of work. I guess they assumed that an artist knows more than they, which of course is not true.
WHITEWALL: How did you discover the Hairy Who while you were working there? And how did that group affect you and your work?
ERIC FISCHL: The Hairy Who were the only game in town. Chicago at that time was not really a big enough art scene that would support more than one local movement at a time and the Hairy Who were it. Where I went to school, the HW were considered very provincial artists. They had no impact on what was going on in NYC at that time. I found their work full of life, vulgarity, wicked wit and incredible technique.
WW: Speaking of work, you have a piece up at the Eden Rock Hotel in Saint Barth’s, how did you end up participating in the exhibition? Do you get to St. Barth’s often?
EF: I am both on the board of the NY Academy of Art and a visiting senior critic, so I have a longtime relationship with it. Several years ago, Richard Blumenthal got me involved in the gallery in Eden Rock by inviting me to curate a show of work of students from the Academy. Richard is the vice chair person of the board there. Since that time, my wife, April Gornik has curated a show of student work, several of the students have had residencies at Eden Rock and she and I have put work into some of the exhibitions. We come to St. B’s annually.
WW: How does that work, would you say, relate to the “Water/Bodies” theme?
EF: If you are asking me about my contribution to this most recent show, “Water/Bodies,” it is a watercolor of a naked woman which came from a photo I’d taken on the beach at Salene.
WW: Have you and the hotel discussed possible upcoming exhibitions in the future? What are your thoughts on the projects that Eden Rock has done with artists in the past?
EF: I have not discussed anything about future exhibitions with Jane or David Matthews [the hotel owners]. I think the program at Eden Rock is a fantastic opportunity for young artists and is enriching to anyone who stays at the hotel or on the island. It could turn out that, that like the Pont Aven group of post-impressionist artists, or the Nabis, or several other examples of artists who find themselves in exotic or out of the way places, come up with vital and original works of art. Imagine, the St. Bart’s school or movement? Why not? Only time will tell that one.
