Born in 1948, Eric Fischl captures the void at the heart of contemporary American culture. Finally settling in New York City in 1978, Fischl emerged as a leading figure in the Neo-Expressionist movement that included contemporaries including Julian Schnabel and Jean-Michel Basquiat. By the 1980s, his large-scale, confrontational paintings were gaining wider attention.

His paintings often expose the dysfunctional sexuality and complicated relationships of the 1950s world in which he grew up. His mother was an alcoholic who later committed suicide, an event that left Fischl both guilty and relieved - he would later remark that he didn't want her for his mother.

In pieces such as the present study, the narrative is provocatively open ended, leaving us to question the significance of the clearly Roman-inspired sculpture and anonymous location. Overall, we are left with a sense of disquiet, of unresolve, as Fischl offers us no answers or conclusions except our own.

Through his complex, painterly style and ambiguity, Fischl draws us into the space of his canvas. This allows him to point to the disturbing undercurrents that pervade suburban existence and present it to us, much like life when we encounter those strange moments with others.

Fischl was born in 1948 in New York City, growing up in the suburbs of Long Island. He attended Phoenix College and earned his BFA from the California Institute for the Arts in 1972. Fischl had his first solo show, curated by Bruce W. Ferguson, at Dalhousie Art Gallery in Nova Scotia in 1975 before relocating to New York City three years later. His works are in major collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA, and LACMA.