VITA

Frank Fischer was born 1974 in Zurich, Switzerland, is currently based in London, has a Masters Degree in Fine Art from Chelsea, and is a Jerwood Contemporary Painters 2007 winner.

Frank Fischer’s gloss-on-aluminium paintings hits the viewer with a highly charged linear surface of reductionistic colour code, introducing a synthesis of technology, traditional study and a highly mastered process that challenges chance.

Although his paintings have a sleek, almost clinically perfect appearance, the physicality and potentiality chaotic aspect of his process are visible at the bottom of every work – with a row of stalactite-like dried drips, suspended at the edge of the stretcher.

Committing the colours to the hard aluminium surface is the result of a finely honed process developed by Fischer over years of experimentation. Fischer found an affinity with gloss paint during his MA at Chelsea, and wanted to find a painting process that is endlessly repeatable, but still retains an element of chance.

Fischer ‘challenges chance’ by repeating single drips onto the smooth ground – and the work itself decides it is finished when all the drips are straight.

Driven by his search for arresting colour ranges, Fischer explores the history of art and selects works purely based on the extent and order of their intrinsic colour spectrum. He then digitally processes the image and draws a selection line across the work just one pixel wide that samples the widest and most interesting colour palette.

“The most interesting part is seeing other paintings with completely different eyes – I look at the colour bases for a good combination. And I always use the original title – it’s a trail or a clue for people to find out more.”

Fischer pays homage to his source-pieces by intersecting the most significant details of the work. “Say in a work like The Last Supper, I’ll want to take the line through the head of Jesus.”

Text © Paul Machin