Published by Lund Humphries, 2019
Hardcover, 144 pages
24 x 28 cm | 9.4 x 11 in
Text by David Rhodes
ISBN: 9781848223479
From the publisher:
Published to coincide with a major survey of paintings by the artist on view at the Centre Pompidou, Paris in 2019. Text by David Rhodes reconsiders the critical reception of Frize's work from the 1970s to present, reviewing its current place in both the critical canon and art market.
This is the full-length monograph on the paintings of Bernard Frize (b.1949), an artist whose work straddles movements and styles from Color Field to Minimalism, Fluxus, and Conceptual Art. Frize's works utilize a carefully constructed range of tools, processes, choreography and collaboration to catalogue, in complex and unexpected abstract form and color, the possibilities of his chosen materials.
Emerging from the politicized 1970s onwards, Frize swam against the tide of opinion regarding painting’s apparent obsolescence to develop a painting practice that could express political commitment and social concerns, while avoiding both overt statement and pure decoration.
David Rhodes’ text provides a detailed consideration of Frize’s development, from the earliest works onwards. Placing his paintings in a broader art-historical and philosophical context, a wider conversation about painting itself is presented alongside Frize's significant place within the medium's history.