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Lot Essay
The oeuvre of the Swiss artist Urs Fischer always utilizes the element of the unexpected. Widely known for presenting an exhibition in which he tore up the gallery floor, Fischer is an artist that delves in the practice of provocation. Fischer once again shocks the spectator with Good Problem. Good Problem is a large scale work composed of a colorized film still from the 1960s cult classic film The Brides of Dracula depicting Gina played by actress Andree Melly which is then overlaid with a trompe l'oeil image of a pipe. The juxtaposition of these two seemingly incongruous elements is jarring.
Urs Fischer takes a highly sculptural approach to his two dimensional art. As Fischer said, "the way I see it, my paintings are more like sculptures. I see them as objects on the wall that have a particular surface. The paint applied is just one possible layer" (The artist quoted in an interview with M. Gioni, in B. Curinger, M. Gioni & J. Morgan (eds.), Urs Fischer: Shovel in a Hole, exh. cat., New York, 2009, p. 60). Fischer deftly manipulates a wide range of media in his latest mixed media piece Good Problem. In the work, he employs a wealth of different materials including, but not limited to aluminum, gesso, spray enamel, acrylic paint, and silkscreen. The result is a technically complex and expertly finished piece. Fischer's composition echoes a tradition of collage set by masters such as Pablo Picasso's Guitar, Sheet Music, and Wine Glass (1912) whilst including a surrealist twist that is much in line with Rene Magritte's The Son of Man (1964). The pipe covering the face of Gina strongly evokes the portrait of a man with an apple obscuring his head.
Fischer takes an iconic image and places something as ordinary and commonplace as a steel pipe directly above. Fischer is known for his unexpected interventions within a variety of settings. Employing a wide array of materials, his practice is characterized by a consistent dialogue or contrast between seemingly opposite elements. In Good Problem, Fischer combines famous imagery with the banal to create a powerful impact on the viewer. The piece operates on a richly visual level, affecting the viewer in much more of a visceral than cerebral manner. In many ways, this liberates it from an overly literal interpretation and is, in part, what makes the artwork so appealing. Fischer believes that over-explanation of art is reductive to its possibilities, limiting it unnecessarily. In his words, "art is like people: you cannot reduce them to a couple of sentences. They are much more complex, much richer" (Ibid., p. 62). Good Problem fully articulates this philosophy in an impressively brutal, thought provoking, and tactile aesthetic manner which only Urs Fischer can produce.
Urs Fischer takes a highly sculptural approach to his two dimensional art. As Fischer said, "the way I see it, my paintings are more like sculptures. I see them as objects on the wall that have a particular surface. The paint applied is just one possible layer" (The artist quoted in an interview with M. Gioni, in B. Curinger, M. Gioni & J. Morgan (eds.), Urs Fischer: Shovel in a Hole, exh. cat., New York, 2009, p. 60). Fischer deftly manipulates a wide range of media in his latest mixed media piece Good Problem. In the work, he employs a wealth of different materials including, but not limited to aluminum, gesso, spray enamel, acrylic paint, and silkscreen. The result is a technically complex and expertly finished piece. Fischer's composition echoes a tradition of collage set by masters such as Pablo Picasso's Guitar, Sheet Music, and Wine Glass (1912) whilst including a surrealist twist that is much in line with Rene Magritte's The Son of Man (1964). The pipe covering the face of Gina strongly evokes the portrait of a man with an apple obscuring his head.
Fischer takes an iconic image and places something as ordinary and commonplace as a steel pipe directly above. Fischer is known for his unexpected interventions within a variety of settings. Employing a wide array of materials, his practice is characterized by a consistent dialogue or contrast between seemingly opposite elements. In Good Problem, Fischer combines famous imagery with the banal to create a powerful impact on the viewer. The piece operates on a richly visual level, affecting the viewer in much more of a visceral than cerebral manner. In many ways, this liberates it from an overly literal interpretation and is, in part, what makes the artwork so appealing. Fischer believes that over-explanation of art is reductive to its possibilities, limiting it unnecessarily. In his words, "art is like people: you cannot reduce them to a couple of sentences. They are much more complex, much richer" (Ibid., p. 62). Good Problem fully articulates this philosophy in an impressively brutal, thought provoking, and tactile aesthetic manner which only Urs Fischer can produce.