Artist’s Talk

Suzan Frecon gave a talk at the Menil Collection in Houston in conjunction with the public opening of the Menil Drawing Institute on November 3. Frecon spoke about the different elements that compose her abstract practice, in which subtle, interacting arrangements of color appear to blur the distinction between matter and transcendence.

Wednesday, November 7, 7–9 PM 
Main Building, The Menil Collection 
Free and open to the public

First shown in a solo exhibition at David Zwirner in 2010, Frecon’s painting version 13 (2010) is currently on view at the Menil Collection. In 2008, her work was the subject of a large-scale solo exhibition at the museum, titled form, color, illumination: Suzan Frecon painting, which was accompanied by the first major monograph on the artist.

"Ms. Frecon’s images are obviously landscapes," Roberta Smith writes in a review of the artist’s solo exhibition at David Zwirner in 2015, "but they also resemble something stranger: actual sculptures completely flattened against the surface, with traces of light and space lingering behind them that go beyond simple illusionism into actual perception. This balancing of nature and artifice is both exquisite and witty. Part of the physicality of the work stems from Ms. Frecon’s earthy color sense but also from her subtle yet decisive contrasts of matte and shiny surfaces. The paintings have a profoundly odd optical reality that is all their own. They are obdurate objects that don’t quite dwell in our space, which is what makes them so exceptional." In Frecon’s own words, "I have spent my life trying to make art/painting that has the singular purpose of speaking for itself."