Urs Fischer: Phantom Paintings

Phantom Paintings gathers several series of paintings on aluminum panel produced over the last three years by the Swiss artist Urs Fischer (born 1973).

From far away many of these paintings appear to be large-scale gestural abstractions, but on closer inspection the viewer detects total flatness–the abstract paint marks were actually photographed and silkscreened on top of images of personal spaces, creating an image of abstraction rather than the abstraction itself. This process allows a largeness of motion and an immediacy, as two representational systems clash. In other works, the abstractions obstruct images taken from vintage Hollywood publicity headshots as well as close-up photographs of the artist’s own face. Finally, bold paintings on cutout aluminum panels push the limits of line, color and shape, transforming facial features into intersecting organic shapes that slide and mutate in a new form of landscape painting.