ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Eric Fischl: Stories Told brings together 40 large-scale works by the renowned figurative painter. Born in 1948, Eric Fischl grew up in Long Island, New York, and Phoenix, Arizona, where he attended Phoenix College and Arizona State University in the late 1960s. After studying under contemporary landscape painter Merrill Mahaffey, Fischl received his B.F.A. in 1972 as part of the first graduating class at the California Institute for the Arts (CalArts). During a time when new art forms and ideas reigned at CalArts, Fischl largely had to teach himself to paint in the traditional manner, studying early modern artists like Manet and Degas. Working with figurative painting and narrative content in the late 1970s, when it was decidedly out of favor in the art world, Fischl made his subject what he knew best: memories of suburban life and the nuclear family of his childhood.
Stories Told features work from the late 1970s to today, illuminating Fischl’s continued exploration of the human figure in fraught, ambiguous moments where social taboos, anxieties, family secrets, masculinity, unacknowledged privilege, the collision of the public and the private, and more bubble just below the surface. In addition to his international reputation, Fischl has made a profound impact on the Phoenix arts scene through longtime mentorship and philanthropic endeavors at Phoenix College, making this survey of his signature works a homecoming of sorts.
Eric Fischl, Barbeque, 1982. Oil on canvas. 65 x 100 in. Steve Martin and Anne Stringfield. Image courtesy of the artist. © 2025 Eric Fischl
Eric Fischl, Oct 7: Heading Out, 2023. Acrylic on linen. 62 x 72 in. Private Collection. Image courtesy of the artist. © 2025 Eric Fischl
Header: Eric Fischl, Scenes from Late Paradise: Stupidity, 2007. Oil on linen. 84 × 108 in. Hall Art Foundation. Image courtesy of the artist. © 2025 Eric Fischl
EXHIBITION SPONSORS
Eric Fischl: Stories Told is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and guest-curated by Heather Sealy Lineberry, Curator Emeritus at the Arizona State University Art Museum and faculty associate in the ASU School of Art’s Museum Studies program.
The exhibition is presented by the Men’s Arts Council, with leadership support from Margaret T. Morris Foundation, and Steven Martin and Anne Stringfield.
Major support provided by Michael and Nancy Gifford, James and Janet Dicke, Bruce and Suzie Kovner, and DL Withers Foundation.
Additional support is provided by Rafael Jablonka, Erica Samuels, and Skarstedt Gallery.
In-kind support provided by Kimpton Hotel Palomar Phoenix.
Contemporary art exhibitions and projects are made possible in part by the Rob Walton, Jordan Rose, and Rose Law Group Fund for Contemporary Art.
All exhibitions at Phoenix Art Museum are underwritten by the Phoenix Art Museum Exhibition Excellence Fund, founded by The Opatrny Family Foundation, with additional major support provided by Joan Cremin.
Leadership support for the exhibition publication, Eric Fischl: Late America, is provided by Skarstedt Gallery.
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