FRIZE, BERNARD
1941 Saint-Mandé

Title: Neori.
Date: 2005.
Technique: Acrylic and resin on canvas.
Measurement: 150 x 132 cm.
Notation: Dated, inscribed, titled and signed Verso upper part of the folded canvas: 2005 32 "Neori" Bernard Frize. Additionally a label with manufacturer's specifications on the stretcher.



Provenance:
- - Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerpen (according to consignor)

- Private Collection Hamburg



- The work captivates with its orchestrated arrangement of varied tonal colours

- An intriguing contrast between serial rigour and colourful lightness

- The artist’s works can be found in numerous renowned international museums, including the Tate Gallery in London, the Kunstmuseum Basel and the Centre Pompidou in Paris



Interesting Paradoxes

The French painter Bernard Frize pursues a conceptual approach to painting based on strict rules and structural frameworks. Through these, he investigates the fundamental principles of painting—from the initial idea and strategic planning to manual execution and the most objective possible perception of paint-saturated brushstrokes on canvas. His almost scientific methodology encompasses experimental arrangements in which the process of painting unfolds automatically and, at times, by chance.

Within this field of painterly experimentation, the artist—who worked in a Parisian silkscreen workshop from 1970 to 1976—typically works in series. By examining the individual outcomes achieved, he explores the effects of similar conditions on the resulting paintings. Like test sequences, Frize produces variations of a universal formal principle, which he applies as a structural template for organizing the canvas. Many of his compositions are thus based on grids or systems of knots, stripes, layers, as well as interlacings and branching forms.

Through repetition, Frize opens up the mechanically conceived process of painting to moments of freedom that, in turn, require flexibility. It may happen that the artist moves uniformly within a predetermined grid structure, only to be suddenly surprised by the material properties of the paint itself. Liquidity, viscosity, and density of the pigment emerge as image-defining factors, diverting attention from rigid configurations.“I have always thought that the practice of painting is the management of contradictions. The more paradoxes there are, the more interesting the painting becomes.” (Bernard Frize, quoted in Henri-François Debailleux, “Bernard Frize on the Contradictions of Painting,” May 10, 2023). Frize’s work thus brings together strict control over initial conditions and parameters with the freedom of painting itself. Although the saturated colors exert strong visual appeal, Frize rejects any form of personal expression—or even taste—in favor of a purely pragmatic calculus. His palette, too, is deliberately restricted to a few primary tones capable of yielding countless combinations: “Most of the time, I paint with only five or six colors. They are very pure, so they blend together and allow for all the necessary variations.” (ibid.)



Vehicles for Color

The present work, Neori (2005), captivates through its regular, all-over arrangement of brushstrokes of similar width and length. Across five horizontal bands, a distinctive chromatic order unfolds. Here, the brush appears to follow no logical principle, instead shifting abruptly from one placed stroke to another, allowing color to transfer and overlap.

According to Frize himself, the brushes function like vehicles in a transportation network, carrying paint that becomes contaminated through intersections and collisions with other color loads. The visible brush traces enable the reconstruction of individual movements of applying or removing paint within the painterly process. Within the orchestrated interplay of chromatic harmonies, the dominant tones here fluctuate between brown, orange, and pink—modulations derived from the pure colors red, yellow, and blue.

Through this method, Frize systematically investigates the interactions and relationships between color nuances: “Their principal role is to distinguish themselves from neighboring colors.” (ibid.)



Between Transparent Glazes and Impasto Materiality

Frize is interested neither in the emotional quality nor the decorative value of color; rather, material serves as a means for carrying out a fundamentally artisanal activity, one that dispenses with the pathos of an expressive artistic signature. He further explores the possibilities of material itself—for example through the addition of resin—in order to exploit painterly effects such as gloss and matte surfaces, transparency and opacity.

The powerful dynamism of this painting thus arises not only from the tension-filled juxtaposition of radiant and diffuse color values, but also from the varying qualities of the paint material itself, oscillating between translucent glazing and thick, sculptural impasto.

Bettina Haiss



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#Bernard Frize #France #Post-War Art #2000s #Colour #Painting #Contemporary Art.







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