William Fisk at the Forum
Marlena Donohue
Forum Gallery near Beverly Hills has brought to the Los Angeles art scene—a locale not historically open to figurative genres—some extremely convincing realistic art. It’s a style that’s been theoretically beleaguered in and outside L.A. The advent of the photograph, of technologies that copy the real world with precision began what is known as the crisis of realism: artists having to ask themselves tough questions about the purpose—beyond lulling the public with hand skill—of hyper realistic painting. When we see this format in 2003, it better have some other compelling rhetoric tucked into the painting virtuosity or into the suggested narrative if it is to hold our attention.
Canadian William Fisk who shows at Forum the month of July as part of the Los Angeles International Art Faire is nothing if not a masterful painter and draftsman. You stand in front of his paintings and watch with wonder as simple bands of monochromatic paint take life as bending, shiny metal gears, camera lenses, and the blades of nostalgic ‘50s room fans. It is all just flat, matte pigment that takes shape and dimension somewhere in our perceptual apparatus and its intense need to order and recognize. With a very limited palette of grays, whites, taupes and nuanced blacks, Fisk paints one vintage gadget after another in huge scale isolated on a blanched ground: glistening old movie cameras from the ‘50s, an absolutely sumptuous and massive ‘50s microscope that for its size (maybe five feet) and isolation takes on this weird totemic, anthropomorphic sci-fi feel and both celebrates and sanctions science in a deadpan way.
A ‘50s pay phone with all the “10 cents per call” signage, painted by Fisk’s deft hand, is another visual stunner that summons a lost past and puts us in mind of the inexorable progress of technology, even as we stand in the gallery and call home from our digital-camera-text-messaging-two-way-cellular-pagers. Fisk is astute: all these gadgets have an immediate appeal to folks in film and Tec arenas with the bucks to buy these “what’s not to love,” easy to digest, extremely pricey works. Does the endeavor circumvent the crisis of realism and go beyond seducing us with paint technique? Jury’s still out.
