Bernard Frize

Over the years Frize has experimented with countless procedures that can result in a painting. He determines, in advance, a painterly action which he then carries out systematically. That pragmatic approach, however, does not prevent very dissimilar and often delightful works from taking shape. For Suite Segond SF N5 Frize removed, from a number of randomly chosen cans of paint, the dried top layers and adhered these to the canvas, haphazardly alongside and over each other, until it was covered and became a colorful relief. Frize himself says: ‘What I really like is to make paintings that look like they could have been made by anyone. Simple and direct, without mystery.’ In the catalogue published in connection with his retrospective at De Pont in 1998 one can find his ‘recipe for a practical ready-made painting’, in which we can follow the step-by-step process for producing Suite Segond and other paintings of that kind.