Dan Fischer
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
October 30 – December 19, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, October 30, 6 - 8 pm
Derek Eller Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of drawings by Dan Fischer.
Taking its title, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, from the Futurist masterpiece by Boccioni, this exhibition features drawings of 20th-century artists and their signature works. Fischer’s drawings are devotional homages to artists and images that have had a profound impact on him. Through an exacting process, his works are executed with meticulous attention to detail. He makes photocopies of images from books and journals, overlays them with a grid, and carefully recreates them in graphite. Were it not for the grid, which he often leaves visible, Fischer’s drawings might be mistaken for photographs.
Fischer’s long-standing interests in mimcry, appropriation, and the grid figure prominently in his choices of subject matter. Favorite subjects over the years include Mondrian, Duchamp, and Warhol. For this exhibition, he contributes a small square portrait of Mondrian, peering intensely at the viewer, as well as a studio view which pictures several gridded paintings resting on easels. (Miraculously, Fischer manages to evoke the primary colors of Mondrian’s palette using just graphite). Marcel Duchamp is shown at the age of 58, disguised as an 85-year-old man, and again, posing for Man Ray, lathered in soap bubbles. An image of Duchamp’s iconic urinal is complemented by a drawing of Elaine Sturtevant’s appropriation of the same urinal. A portrait of Warhol holding his novel “a” is included as well as a picture of his Brillo Box sculpture. Also included in this exhibition are images of Stieglitz, Picabia, Brancusi, Manzoni, Boccioni, Hartley, Gorky, Kline, Haring, Prince, and Bourgeois.
This exhibition brings together a selection of drawings created over the past three years. Dan Fischer’s work was recently featured in “The Making of Art” at The Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt and will be included in “Picturing the Studio” next month at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His drawings are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Tate, London; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and other institutions.
Derek Eller Gallery is located at 615 West 27th Street, between 11th and 12th Avenues. Hours are Tuesday - Saturday from 11am - 6pm. For further information or visuals, please contact the gallery at 212.206.6411 or visit www.derekeller.com.