Over the last five decades, Louise Fishman has developed an articulate and athletic approach to painterly abstraction that reflects her ongoing interest in the grid as a support for composition; her feminism; her lesbianism; her Jewish identity; her pleasure in poetry and music; and her passion for the material possibilities of paint on canvas. An active participant in the feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s, Fishman’s early work is sublime and under-recognized. For Basel’s OVR:20c, Vielmetter Los Angeles presents a selection of works never before exhibited from the artist's personal archive — a presentation of paintings made between 1974 – 1985 which reflect the brilliance and intimacy of Louise’s prowess as a painter.

The earliest works from 1974 and 1975, were created around the time of the artist’s first solo show in NYC at Nancy Hoffman Gallery; consisting of oil and wax paintings on irregularly shaped pieces of plywood. By 1978 the artist returned to her original format (the rectangle) and materials (primed and stretched linen). And upon returning to NYC from her first trip to Italy in 1979, Fishman began to introduce the curve into her paintings, inspired by Duccio’s figures (Sienna, late 13th / early 14th century) — as well she introduced the color red to her palette. Inspired by literature, art history, and the artist’s own identity in the world, the works presented here provide an insight into Fishman’s early formalism, as well as her desire to deconstruct such formalism, resulting in compositions of complex spatial interplay.

Louise Fishman was born in 1939 in Philadelphia. In 1956 she began studying art at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, then at Stella Elkins Tyler School of Art, where she earned her BFA in Painting and Printmaking, and a B.S. in Art Education in 1963. She completed her MFA in Painting and Printmaking at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana, and headed directly to New York in 1965, where she has lived and worked ever since. Her work is represented in many public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; the Jewish Museum, New York; the Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein, Vaduz, Lichtenstein; among others. In 2016, the Neuberger Museum of Art organized the artist’s first career retrospective, curated by Helaine Posner; the retrospective traveled to the Weatherspoon Art Museum, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and was accompanied by a second exhibition at the ICA Philadelphia titled Paper Louise Tiny Fishman Rock, curated by Ingrid Schaffner. A retrospective of work on paper, A Question of Emphasis: Louise Fishman Drawing is forthcoming at the Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL (2021).