RIP – Louise Fishman, Large Scale Abstract Painter (1939-2021)
(Paper Louise Tiny Fishman Rock, 2016, installation view, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. Photo: Constance Mensh.)
Kienzle Art Foundation Berlin, Work by Louise Fishman, Kienzle Collection
(Untitled 1971)
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Louise Fishman – Artforum (Obit)
Louise Fishman, whose process-based large-scale abstractions draw on queer, feminist, and Jewish cultures, died early July 26 at the age of eighty-two. The news was confirmed by New York gallery Karma, which represents the artist. Often working with a grid motif, Fishman melded gestural abstraction with geometric minimalism to create densely layered and textured paintings that appear as if they had been built or woven. From the massive, energetic oil-on-canvas works for which she became known in the 1970s and ’80s, to the small-scale watercolors of recent years, her entire body of work radiates emotional intensity.
For a series begun in 1973, known as “Angry,” Fishman reflected on her own frustration with a patriarchal world that oppressed women by scrawling the names of famous women above abstract backgrounds. One in shades of beige and blue referring to the actress Marilyn Monroe reads “ANGRY MARILYN”; another is filled with crosshatched green strokes and alludes to the poet Gertrude Stein reads “ANGRY GERTRUDE.” Still others refer to Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia founder Ti-Grace Atkinson, the dancer Yvonne Rainer, and Fishman herself. She returned to the series in 2008 for a related body of work called “Serious Rage” that picks up the 1973 series’ themes for a new era, focusing on modern-day figures like Hillary Clinton.
Conversation with Louise Fishman (Two Coats of Paint)