Bernard Frize is a French artist whose abstract compositions combine predetermined rules with chance experiments, resulting in process-driven works that reflect on the practice of painting. His innovative works are characterized by varied brushstrokes expressed through a spectrum of color, opacity, density, and width. Frize often begins by placing a grid on paper or canvas to map his compositions, then applies paint through a variety of rule-based methodologies, divorcing color from its traditional associations with emotion, and instead treating it as a technical strategy. He works in series, with each iteration governed by restrictive protocols, thereby prioritizing the process of painting over the final result.

Dola, 2013, an acrylic and resin painting on canvas, embodies the tension between meticulous precision and spontaneous gesture. This painting features a range of colored stripes organized in four vertical bands that reveal the interplay between brushstrokes, paint, and the surface of the canvas. At the top and bottom edges of the canvas the paint has pooled due to the force of gravity, revealing a process that is as serendipitous as it is mathematical. 

About the Artist: Bernard Frize (b. 1949, Saint-Mandé, France) studied at the École Supérieur d’Art, Aix-en-Provence, and the École des beaux-Arts in Montpellier, France. His work is held in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tate Gallery, London; Tate Modern, London; Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles; Buffalo AKG Art Museum; Museo Nacional Centro de Reina Sofia, Madrid; and the Museum of Modern Art, Luxembourg. Frize has exhibited his work in solo exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Yokohama Museum of Art; Fondaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon; Akademie der Künste, Berlin; and Chisenhale Gallery, London, among others. His work has been presented in group exhibitions at the National Museum of Art, Osaka; Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; and Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna. The artist has participated in major international group shows, including the Venice Biennale, Biennale of Sydney, Shanghai Biennale, and Saõ Paulo Biennial. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany.