About the Work
Given the size of the canvas, Bernard Frize must have walked around it as he worked, or have passed the brush on to an assistant. The brushwork is therefore not necessarily dependent on the artist. The white areas initially interpreted as a background prove, on closer inspection, to have been applied after the bands of colour. The classical figure-background relationship has thus been reversed. The special quality of Frize’s paintings lies in the revelation of their production method in such a way as to challenge the traditional parameters of painting.