Artist Eric Fischl to Speak on December 3 as Part of the Sixteenth Annual President’s Lecture Series
Renowned artist Eric Fischl will speak as part of the sixteenth annual Pratt Institute President’s Lecture Series at 6 p.m. on Thursday, December 3, 2009 in Memorial Hall Auditorium on Pratt’s Brooklyn Campus. Fischl’s lecture titled “How Painting Died” will be free and open to the public, however, seating is limited and an RSVP is required.
Fischl’s lecture will examine the evolution of art within the context of nearly 100 years of avant-garde thinking. For instance, in 1881 Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear; the act of self-mutilation was not considered art though his self-portrait with a bandaged ear was considered art. In 1971, Chris Burden shot himself in the arm and his performance of self-mutilation was considered art. The photo documentation about it is not considered art.
Fischl has had numerous solo and group exhibitions. His paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints are represented in many public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; The Museum of Modern Art, N.Y.; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Louisiana Museum of Art, Denmark; and Musée Beaubourg, Paris. Fischl is a Fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Fischl’s figurative artwork explores dysfunctional suburban family life with a focus on human interaction, memory, and body language. “Eric Fischl's cinematic, psychologically charged paintings of domestic sex scenes in the '80s were exceptional for their Freudian candor,” wrote art critic Ken Johnson in a 2009 New York Times article on erotic art. Fischl has a bachelor of fine arts degree from California Institute of the Arts and lives in New York.
Memorial Hall Auditorium is located on Ryerson Walk on Pratt’s Brooklyn Campus. Visitors can enter campus at the main gate at Hall Street and DeKalb Avenue. The lecture is made possible in part through the generous support of Robert H. Thayer, Jr. and the Virginia Pratt Thayer President’s Lecture Series Fund.
Members of the public may reserve seats by emailing .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by Wednesday, December 2. Members of the press may reserve seats by emailing .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
