Eric Fischl, Breakfast Begins the Day or Ends the Evening, (2023).
Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Skarstedt
Eric Fischl Captures the Secret Side of Hotels for His Latest Exhibition
On view through May 4, the artist’s new show at Skarstedt Gallery in New York marks the debut of a new series
It’s hard to think that with all the things Eric Fischl does and accomplishes in his life that he has any time at all for painting. The New York artist and his wife, April Gornik, have become cultural mayors of the Hamptons with the dynamic and community engaging programming at The Church and Sag Harbor Cinema.
Eric Fischl, King's Highway Killing Time, (2024). Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Skarstedt
Eric Fischl, Hotel Service, (2023). Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Skarstedt
This month, the artist has mounted a fascinating new exhibition at Skarstedt Gallery in New York titled “Hotel Stories”, which is on view through May 4th. It evokes a backdrop that many painters, filmmakers, writers, musicians, and storytellers in general have explored in their narratives. Do these rented spaces, separate from from everyday life give license to bigger feelings; do they contain secrets? Perhaps the loneliness sinks in deeper, or upsetting news seems more profound. Perhaps we’re more anonymous, for better or for worse. Or perhaps it’s just business as usual. Fischl’s first full series exploring this theme provokes this questioning and it does not disappoint.
Eric Fischl, Untitled, (2023). Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Skarstedt
In one gallery, there are two paintings set across from one another. The hotel rooms are compositionally the same. Fischl points out that one painting is titled October 7, which has now become a marked day in recent history with grave troubles in the Middle East, while the other is October 8, a day with no relation whatsoever to the day before. Here the viewer is faced with two paintings with completely different situations and moods.
Eric Fischl, Last Days at Tender Cove, (2024). Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Skarstedt
In between these two works, there is a painting depicting a woman siting on a bed turning back to face the viewer. All but naked except for a pillow covering her torso and her hair wrapped in a towel, she is flanked by two Cocker Spaniels as her guardian angels. In the adjacent gallery, there is an encounter with a mysterious woman that also breaks the fourth wall as she stares directly at the viewer. Barefoot and dressed in bohemian chic, she’s accompanied by a man wearing cowboy hat and boots with his suit and tie. Inferences abound, as the waiter rolls out a room service cart.
In other rooms, there is a painting of a mature couple in an open cabin surrounded by tropical blue waters, in a seemingly post coital moment of embrace, aptly titled Last Days at Tender Cove. Then there’s a painting called King’s Highway: Killing Time, where a man strums his guitar on the bed with an AK-47 assault rifle not far from reach. It is loosely inspired by a chillingly macabre Joe Henry song, according to Fischl.
Eric Fischl, Oct 8 Heading Home, (2023). Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Skarstedt
To the artist’s point, by being let in, there are all sorts of situations that the viewer can invent for these characters. That is part of the reason why Eric Fischl’s work is so compelling.
Cover: Eric Fischl, Breakfast Begins the Day or Ends the Evening, (2023).
Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Skarstedt
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