The Chair, The Bed, Getting Ready (Study)

Eric Fischl's The Bed, The Chair series (1999-2000) developed as the artist's response to Edward Hopper, whom he has long both reviled and admired for compelling yet provincial portraits of the dark side of American self-reliance. First seen in his painting The Philosopher's Chair (1999), Fischl's red bamboo-print chairs, with their patterns reminiscent of blood and veins, anchor a sparse domestic bedroom-- an emotionally laden setting explored consistently by Fischl throughout his career. Each painting The Bed, The Chair series contains different characters acting out a fresh mysterious scenario, combining nebulous narrative with a distinct and delicious voyeurism to create fantastical portraits of the myriad ways that couples disengage - the red chair a consistent throbbing wound, materialized. In The Chair, The Bed, Getting Ready (study), Fischl's faceless hooded figure stands swathed in layers of gossamer fabric, a tan, velveteen Laborador panting at his feet. Opulent and spare, this fictive scene is both mundane and disconcertingly mysterious.