Apparition, 1998

Bernard Frize (1949, France) is one of the best-known formal abstract painters of the moment. Painting itself is his subject. His quest is one into the nature and potential of his medium, techniques and materials. These two canvases, 'Apparition' and 'Vingthuit' occupy a prominent place within the AkzoNobel art collection as part of the theme 'Color and Research'. Underlying each of Frize's works is an idea and a way of working put at the service of experimentation: with the paint (and even its chemical composition), for example, or the type of brushes. What his work above all reveals is the physical process of creation, and his signature is subordinate to that: "Once I've decided how I want to go about my work, I take the result as it comes".