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Dean Fisher: Paintings
September 17 - October 16

Byron Roche Gallery
750 North Franklin Street, Suite 105
Chicago, Illinois 60610
Telephone: 312/ 654-0144
website: http://www.enteract.com/~griffin/byr.html
Tues.-Sat.: 11-6 PM

"The whole of the visible universe is only a storehouse of images and signs to which the imagination assigns a place and a relative value; it is a kind of nourishment that the imagination must digest and transform."

Charles Baudelaire, poet, in Varietes Critiques, (Paris: Cres, 1924)

To enter Byron Roche Gallery's showing of paintings by Dean Fisher is to enter upon both an imagination and a universe. And it is, as the French poet/critic observed, a creative and original place -- a world with its own values and raison d'etre -- mute, playful, observant and aware, gentle and benevolent. Dean Fisher's new paintings constitute a virtual commedia dell'arte of the soul. And the gallery visitor may enter in the midst of it all until October 16, when the full Dean Fisher exhibition comes to a close.

"The imagination assigns" a place and a relative value to images and actions. What brings Baudelaire and the French Symbolists to mind in viewing Dean Fisher's art is the artist's approach to painting. The gallery statement notes: "The subjects of Fisher's paintings are chosen and combined to be visually interesting and to imply an overall state of being, rather than to tell a literal story. After selecting subjects that hold visual fascination for him, Fisher arranges them to achieve a sense of calm and order, suggestive of an idealized inner world." The artist himself was quoted in a Daily Herald profile (Sept.16,1999) as seeking not reality, but "atmosphere."

As with the Symbolists, Fisher begins with sensation and observation; the object and idea emerge in consequence. And, much like the artist per se, many of the figures in his paintings invite the viewer to regard proffered objects, to distinguish between face and facade. Some of his figures seem aware, from the corner of their eye, of acts about them. The actors within Fisher's paintings and the gallery visitors who view them walk the same imaginative locale -- The figures are as much viewers of their situation as the visitor who stands before them.The Symbolists expected that feelings, the subliminal, would universally resolve into art and insight -- it is an aesthetic which too often dissolves in dismal results. In the Symbolist painters, frequently the products of the imagination do not cohere, or the modality is passive. Dean Fisher's art is a coherent, living and often lively dream world.

The enigmatic painter, Balthus, deals with a similar magical world: a magic, not of tricks, but of perceptions. It is an art not of manifestos and rationalizations or depictions of meaning, but which rests upon the first principle of art -- seeing. Fisher, like Balthus, has mastered and drawn upon earlier art histories: Fisher himself admits an admiration for Dutch Seventeenth century painters and the gallery statement accurately points out that "his textured use of paint and color palette give Fisher's paintings an aged look, in addition to providing tactile interest." Many of his paintings, like the later Balthus, display a soft, but firm edge and contour as well as a skilled and very personal use of light. In works such as "Rivers in a Valley," "In the Round," and "Counting Gazelles," a series characterized by the recurrent subjects of young girl and leaping gazelles, the source of lighting seems to follow from multiple, tinted suns; hidden glows reflecting from the ground; or ambient and cryptic phosphorescences. Certainly both Balthus and Fisher exhibit in their art much of the visual color and lighting associated with dream states. And Fisher's content to a far greater degree explicitly captures the free, analogical associations that stand for symbolism in dreaming. But beyond certain similarities in technique and execution, Balthus offers single often static scenes, Fisher often telescopes multiple sequences into his image. Fisher, with a surer and more adroit technique, captures multiple foci and juxtaposes image elements in a manner as to imply and invite interpretation.

Fisher and Balthus to a large degree share a genre -- somewhat Symbolist, somewhat dream state -- but the divergences reveal how individual each artist is. Balthus, whether rightly or not, is often cited for a passive dreaminess, moodiness, a voyeuristic eroticism. And his images are closer to plausible reality. At the opening, Fisher noted that the model for such works as "Rivers in a Valley" or "Counting gazelles" is a family friend. What might seem a reference to the dance is the artist's choice of costuming and allows for expression through pose and gesture. (I had asked if it was perhaps a reference to dance.) But in Fisher's work, form and motion work much like pantomime -- toward a painting's 'situation.' Unlike Balthus, they are rarely a sole focus or 'what the painting is about.' All elements in Fisher's composition are a means to the work as a whole. And in Fisher's art, atmosphere does not slide into moodiness, or the vague and ethereal.

Both artists, however, leave the viewer's response to the viewer. Balthus, on the eve of his 1968 showing at the Tate Gallery, responded to critic John Russel's request for information with the cable: "Balthus is a painter about whom nothing is known. Now let us look at the pictures. Regards. B." Dean Fisher similarly insists on the purely visual as art. Both painters would agree with artist, Andre Masson: "In fact, the mistake is to believe that there is anything except the intrinsic value of the work: the personal flavor it gives out, the new emotion it displays and the pleasure it gives. ... A work of art is not written information." [A Crisis of the Imaginary, Horizon (London) XII, 67 (July 1945)].

Motion plays a prominent and perhaps strikingly unusual role is many of Fisher's paintings. Both Fisher's use of pose and movement with his subjects recall the commedia dell'arte, and it is that genre which led to the pantomime in England. There is motion implied within the frame of the painting, as well as sequence between works of a series. In his composition Fisher is attuned to the human form as a form of language. As with the commedia, the artist also builds upon the repeated appearance of familiar, select personae. His subjects often make pointed references to masks or object props.

At times, objects -- hoops, shells, turtles, tea strainers -- are purely formal elements of composition; elsewhere they rise to imply an iconological role. In "Interior of a Cupboard with Orange" (1999) or "The Blue Vase" (1999) the viewer is presented with an atmosphere of light and color, a still life. In "Asian Faces," the woman holds a mask directly next to her face, inviting a comparison between realities conceived and real. Likewise, in "Queen of the Cats," the woman extends a saucer toward her two subjects. Here, the gentle touch may be a questioning of feline affections, or a view of animal homage.

Many of Dean Fisher's most delightful, and powerful oils fully exploit the potential inherent in formal composition. "Figures Against an Evening Sky" is a prime example. Here, the hoop of the young girl functions as a unifying frame, a focus which harmonizes the body lines of the two horse riders. The graceful, long neck of the upper horse echoes a similar flow of the woman rider. Although in Fisher's work the device is more subtlely employed, it is an echo of contours which also gives harmony and imposing dignity to Byzantine icons with their multiple ranks of Saints, and it is also prominent in works by Modigliani. Fisher's model in this series of paintings -- a young girl with hoops and in silent film-like action -- wears an enigmatic countenance. The viewer must decide whether a smile is immanent, or is it wry puzzlement.

In all, Fisher's work is striking, and yet reassuring in mood. It appears symbolistic, but is symbolic of nothing, other than perhaps the artist's own imagination. His art often pantomimes sequences and occurences, but is not programmatic. In his tone and technique, while it is more agilely rendered, he often displays affinities with an artist such as Balthus, who also intrigues and perplexes and at the same time draws the viewer into visual pleasure. But Fisher does offer a benevolent eye upon innocence and beauty. In many of these oil paintings, all executed in 1999, he seems to draw upon silent film, or pantomime --a commedia dell'arte... of the soul. His art is a delight for the viewer, and a danger for the reviewer.The warning of Stanislaus Klossowski de Rola about Balthus holds true for Dean Fisher's art: "...unbridled flights of fancy are not only laughable, they contribute little to the true appreciation of art." Each viewer responds in a personal way. But the response is both powerful and a great pleasure.

Dean Fisher is a former Chicagoan who attended the Paris Academy of Fine arts and the Circle of Fine Arts in Madrid, and was graduated from the American Academy of Art. After eight years of study in Europe, Fisher has exhibited in France, England, Germany and Spain.

"Dean Fisher: Paintings" will be on exhibit at the Byron Roche Gallery until October 16. It is an excellent exhibition at a gallery which has a consistent record for original exhibitions of high quality.

Editor's Note: The Baudelaire and Andre Masson comments cited above may be found in Theories of Modern Art, Ed. Herschel B. Chipp, (University of California Press: 1968)

--G. Jurek Polanski

Jurek Polanski has previously written and art edited for Strong Coffee in Chicago. He's also well known and respected among the Chicago museums and galleries. Jurek is currently a Visual Arts Correspondent for ArtScope.net.