Bernard Frize

Bernard Frize was born in 1949 in Saint-Mandé, France. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany. For the past 45 years Frize has developed a singular practice that has continuously questioned the role of the artist and the act of painting itself. By working serially, and according to restrictive measures and protocols, Frize has released himself from subjectivity and allowed a self-generative framework to take shape and evolve over time, from one series to the next. 

 For Frize, the basic elements of painting (paint, brush, canvas), alongside its sensual and intellectual pursuits, are sublimated according to a pre-determined methodology, and are ultimately concealed by the process of its making, or as Frize concedes, “the method has disappeared under the conditions of its realization.”

 Solo exhibitions of Frize’s work have been organized by many institutions, including Sans Repentir, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (2019); This is a Bridge, Fondaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal (2015); Bernard Frize- Günter Umberg, Fondation Fernet-Branca, Saint Louis, France (2015); And How and Where and Who, Morsbroich Museum, Leverkusen, Germany (2010); Fat Paintings, Kunsthallen Brandts Klaedefabrik, Odense, Denmark (2007); S.M.A.K., Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium (2002), amongst many others.

 Frize has been the recipient of the Kathe-Kollwitz Prize, Germany (2015), the Fred Thieler Prize for Painting, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany (2011) the DAAD, Berlin, Germany (1993) and the Villa Medici, Rome, Italy (1984). His work is in numerous public collections worldwide, including at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland; MUDAM, Luxembourg; Tate Modern, London, UK; MUMOK, Vienna, Austria; MOCA, Los Angeles, USA; Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany and SMAK, Ghent, Belgium.