Galerie Perrotin is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by noted artist Bernard Frize, built out of the artist’s practice of experimentation.

As a new introduction to Bernard Frize, the exhibition reveals key facts about his work:

a. Bernard Frize’s paintings feature a spectrum of colors, selected not for their specific qualities but selected because they are distinct from one another; selected simply to be a color, not to evoke a mood or make a statement in and of themselves.

b. Bernard Frize follows systematic procedures in executing his paint- ings, based on a pre-determined script he chooses which can do nothing once put in motion but veer pointedly towards disruption.

c. Bernard Frize provides a stage for chance and the nature of the materials to make their way, to have their influence. Paint, resin, color, weight of the brush, imprint of the paint, the choice to allow a free- ness to the touch.

In this exhibition, the work is aesthetically resonant; pleasing to look at and contemplate. Paintings in the show are simple in appearance yet, as is usual with Bernard Frize’s work, stem from something more intricate, a rule he has devised to have the material and circumstance create the work. In viewing the work, it can be ok to free oneself to experience it at a surface level and allow initial thoughts to have credence:

#1 shimmer, sound wave, water droplet waves

#2 convex/concave with heavy spots at edges of some lines

#3 nice wash smudge; blue and pink featured; hot n cool; light blend- ing to dark from left to right

#4 yellow blue greeny brown

#5 horizontal tree trunk birch style; look more closely, especially where colors join; puzzles are revealed, but not solved

The paintings are disturbance. Bernard Frize establishes a field, a surface; then establishes a starting point; then creates a disturbance.

As Bernard Frize describes it, “A work of art gives a form to Chaos, not because it reveals a hidden signification of the World. The forest is more or less dense for all of us, but we are all looking for a path through it. And if you are asking why people who are not artists could be interested by painting, I suppose the answer is that they probably share these questions in their life and they could project on paintings some answers for their quest.”

The tension here is tangible: with a careful, practiced discipline, Bernard Frize creates works that are simultaneously controlled yet free; at once determined yet random. These truths in the works are discovered by the viewer when he or she enters into a dialogue with the painting, opens eyes and studies the layers.
- Sara Radelet 

Image: © Bernard Frize
Diola
2013
Acrylic and resin on canvas
180 x 160cm
Courtesy Galerie Perrotin