1983

Year of the Drowned Dog

American, born 1948

Water is the protagonist in this disturbing story of a boy leaning over a dead dog, and the shore signifies the border between life and death. The rest of the plot is composed of isolated episodes involving figures engaged in separate actions on a sun-drenched beach. As a result, the narrative is unclear, even absent, for each incident takes place in a slightly different moment in time-even the quality of light differs from one part of the print to another. In fact, Eric Fischl planned the composition so that it could be rearranged in different sequences. To underline his intention to indicate the passage of time, he has said that he chose "year" rather than "day" for the title of the work.