Bernard Frize Togetherless

By Jurriaan Benschop

The exhibition and the accompanying catalog features ten paintings made by using a set of seven colors: red, yellow, brown, pink, green, and two types of blue. Ten paintings sharing same colors, some sharing a single motif. In 2019, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris will host a retrospective of Bernard Frize, one of the foremost abstract painters of the worldThe catalog presenting Frize's ten paintings produced for this exhibition features a text by Jurriaan BenschopThis exhibition catalog was published within the context of the exhibition titled Togetherles by Bernard Frize that took place on March 20-April 29, 2018 at Dirimart Dolapdere.

A group of paintings are made with a wide brush on which he put the seven colors next to each other. He then moved the brush around, creating patterns that are reminiscent of a kaleidoscope.

Another group bears a woven compositional pattern created through crossing four vertical and three horizontal bands of color.
What connects the paintings is rather a compositional scheme.
As for color, those ten paintings produce very different results in terms of atmosphere, brightness, and accessibility.
Bernard Frize is not a painter who likes to be visible within his paintings. The subjective gesture that connects the painting with its maker seems far away from his approach.
The painter is rather skeptical about the possibilities of expression. Despite this, there is an active painter's hand visible--the works do not appear neutral, or as if no human being was involved in making them.

Color is a paradox: it does "not particularly interest" him, despite its being a vital raw material for his work. By using color in a non-hierarchical, experimental, technical-mechanical manner, Frize lends his works a certain dynamic through contradictions.
Concentrating on the process of production of the painting rather than the elements like color, composition, and symbols offers a nice challenge to the viewer: the challenge of seeing/ hearing the "pictorial score."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 6055815486
• ISBN13: 9786055815486
• Release Date: March 2018
• Publisher: Dirimart
• Length: 48 Pages