Bernard Frize
Bernard Frize is a French abstract painter who lives and works in France and Germany. He was born in Saint-Mandé, France in 1949 and studied at the École des beaux-Arts in Montpellier National Art School.
Since the late 1970s, and during the period when many artists and critics spoke of the 'death of painting', Frize has been producing a body of work that reduces painting to its most pure essence: the application of color and paint on a support.
As the artist said in a 2019 interview with Mousse Magazine: 'For me, painting has always been a place for developing ideas and reflecting on the history of art and images'. While his work was slow to receive critical recognition, Frize gave painting a new impulse and influenced a younger generation of artists.
Frize's paintings use lines in abstractions that show surprising complexity in terms of color, facture, width, and intersection, stretching the definition of line. The artist employs different techniques and tools to apply paint to the canvas—from wide brushstrokes to more precise and rigid lines—to create colorful and diverse abstract patterns. While his paintings often begin as a grid on paper or canvas, they will not always retain the original sketch; the resulting compositions in Frize's paintings and prints reveal a tension between order and accident.
Bernard Frize is a French abstract painter who lives and works in France and Germany. He was born in Saint-Mandé, France in 1949 and studied at the École des beaux-Arts in Montpellier National Art School.
Since the late 1970s, and during the period when many artists and critics spoke of the 'death of painting', Frize has been producing a body of work that reduces painting to its most pure essence: the application of color and paint on a support.
As the artist said in a 2019 interview with Mousse Magazine: 'For me, painting has always been a place for developing ideas and reflecting on the history of art and images'. While his work was slow to receive critical recognition, Frize gave painting a new impulse and influenced a younger generation of artists.
Frize's paintings use lines in abstractions that show surprising complexity in terms of color, facture, width, and intersection, stretching the definition of line. The artist employs different techniques and tools to apply paint to the canvas—from wide brushstrokes to more precise and rigid lines—to create colorful and diverse abstract patterns. While his paintings often begin as a grid on paper or canvas, they will not always retain the original sketch; the resulting compositions in Frize's paintings and prints reveal a tension between order and accident.