Exhibits show the progression, prowess of painter's intricate work
Most artists spend a lifetime laboring to improve their craft, while Albert Fisher seems able to handle the intricacies of water-based paint with no effort at all. Maybe it's because he started so young. At the tender age of 8, he was enrolled in Mark Tobey's Children's Creative Art School in Seattle and in the 1960s, as a young man, continued his studies in San Francisco and New York.
Despite his exposure to a broader scope of contemporary art, Fisher still appreciates the Asian aesthetic that's part of the Northwest School. More than a decade younger than the late master of gouache technique, Leo Kenney, Fisher — like his friends Charles Stokes and John Schaefer — has carefully studied and absorbed elements of Kenney's style.
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Two surprising exhibits of Fisher's work offer insight into his career. The first is a large collection of the artist's early figurative paintings from the estate of a private collector, on view at i Capolavori Gallery in the Denny Regrade. Some 90 small paintings were originally purchased by Herb Chilcoate during the 1960s and recently resurfaced.
The artist isn't thrilled at having his earliest efforts back in the public eye, but the work has charm. There's a tentative quality to the paint application and to the subjects, as well, who avert their eyes from ours.
The salon-style exhibit, with lots of small paintings clustered together, gives a premonition of the kind of relentless productivity that Fisher is known for. Alongside those early paintings are a couple of Fisher's more recent portraits — the ones that drive some people crazy. I happen to like them for their polished, borderline kitsch beauty, and I especially like the contrast of seeing them next to paintings that are far more naive in their appeal.
The other show is at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, a venue that puts many Seattle institutions to shame by assembling smart exhibitions by significant regional artists — particularly those who've been blatantly ignored here in their hometown.
In this case, rather than attempting a retrospective with such limited space — the center occupies a former private residence — director Jake Seniuk selected from the past decade of Fisher's work, focusing on a series of triptychs. Reminiscent of Japanese screen paintings, some of these three-part acrylic-on-paper abstractions take off from Kenney-esque mandalas. Others are rippling, intricate patterns similar to fine batik or opulently printed fabric.
In these paintings, Fisher's technical prowess may be his drawback. The facility of his feathery transparent washes and opaque, beadwork patterning give the paintings an appearance more of decoration than substance.
Sheila Farr can be reached at sfarr@seattletimes.com.