Bernard Frize

Bernard Frize (*1949 in Saint Mandé, France), who lives and works in Paris and Berlin, has decisively influenced the international discourse on abstract painting since the mid-seventies. Frize’s paintings are experimental arrangements that he then tests in series until the various results no longer hold any promise of supplying further answers to the initial question. When asked what he enjoys most about painting, Bernard Frize replied: “. . . when I succeed in inventing a little mechanism—a motor that runs all by itself, that no longer requires me.” This gives rise to paintings that are indeed beautiful in the classic sense of the word. The processual clarity and predominantly large formats lead to a certain rigor and monumentality that Frize, through his fluid application of paint, translates into radiant lightness.   Exhibition schedule: Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, September 5–November 7, 2010