Long overdue, this monograph on the
groundbreaking artist Louise Fishman
pays tribute to her achievements and the
unapologetically emotional cadences of
her abstract paintings. Painting, scraping, repainting, and texturing are all part of
Louise Fishman's artistic process. Her resulting works feel at
once energetic and orderly, celebratory and reverent.
Long overdue, this monograph on the
groundbreaking artist Louise Fishman
pays tribute to her achievements and the
unapologetically emotional cadences of
her abstract paintings. Painting, scraping, repainting, and texturing are all part of
Louise Fishman's artistic process. Her resulting works feel at
once energetic and orderly, celebratory and reverent. This book
accompanies the first-ever museum survey of Fishman's largescale
gestural abstractions as well as a concurrent exhibition
devoted to the artist's lesser-known work in small-scale painting
and sculpture. Chronologically tracing her creative path over
50 years, the book explores how in the 1960s and '70s she
negotiated the constraints established by the male-dominated
Abstract Expressionists to make for herself an adventurous and
deeply personal painting practice. Full-color images trace a
distinct transformation in Fishman's work--from minimalist grid
overlays to more chaotic representations, to the textured use
of ashes and beeswax, to her majestic gestural works of recent
years. This volume also includes insightful essays that delve into
Fishman's relationship with the Abstract Expressionist, feminist,
and Jewish communities. Beautifully produced to enhance
Fishman's vibrant, multilayered works in the context of modern
and contemporary art, this volume will be appreciated for its
subject's wide-ranging appeal as an artist and a trailblazer.
