New on View: Eric Fischl's The Black Sea

Eric Fischl’s monumental painting The Black Sea (1986) is now on view. Fischl first rose to prominence in the 1980s, and his work is indelibly associated with the return to representation and gestural painting after a period dominated by hard-edged abstraction. Unlike many of his predecessors in the 1940s,' 50s, and '60s, however, Fischl does not privilege purity and medium specificity. As seen in The Black Sea, his paintings integrate aspects of both film and sculpture into their design. Comprising two canvases that overlap slightly, the painting projects into the viewer’s space. The canvases include images of the same woman seen from two different points of view, first with a partner and then alone. The shift in perspective and scenography suggests the passage of time, a cinematic conceit, while the doubled canvases call to mind two separate film stills. Film, especially noir film, is important to the work’s overall tone and setting, which suggest not joy and leisure, as one might expect given the beachfront setting, but instead a disconcerting sense of unease. The Black Sea is on loan from Ann and Argyris Vassiliou, Class of 1991, and will be on view through January 2014.