AUSPEX III Print

Born in Wil, SG Switzerland. Emigrated to the United States in 1961. Educated in Switzerland, Astrid Fitzgerald has been living and working in the United States since 1961. Her work has been shown in New York, Europe and Asia in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and is represented in major corporate, museum and private collections. Recent shows include Wired Gallery, High Falls, NY Astrid Fitzgerald - A Retrospective; The Gallery at R&F, Kingston, NY, 2011, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY, 2010, Unison Art Gallery, New Paltz, NY, 2010, Pearl Arts Gallery, Stone Ridge, NY, 2008, LoRiver Gallery, Beacon, NY in 2005, Galerie Raubach, St. Gallen, Switzerland in 2004, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY in 2003, and Muroff-Kotler Visual Arts Gallery at SUNY Stone Ridge, NY in 2000. Fitzgeralds installation Amish Quilts was chosen by the Jury of the Artcanal in Le Landeron, Switzerland to represent the United States during expo02. When years ago I began making art I was at the same time searching for answers to fundamental questions about the nature of being. Later, I began to see that my art and what turned out to be basic philosophical questions came together as I started to explore the laws of geometric forms. Two fragments by Heraclitus, the early Greek thinker, are vital to my work. These are: "Nature Loves to hide," and "A hidden connection is stronger than an apparent one." My work is an exploration of the dynamic laws of nature expressed in geometric principles. The wonder is that what may seem fixed and static laws are instead dynamic and expressive of great potential and creativity. One principle in particular, the so-called Golden Mean Proportion, is perhaps the most dynamic of all, and I have worked with its potential for years. Within it's rigor I activate and alter the surface of canvases and constructions freely, creating contrasts of light and dark, depth and surface, energy and stillness, using saturated color inspired by trips to the ancient sites of Greece and Egypt. Nature indeed loves to hide her laws and it has taken time and patience to tease out her secrets. I have been aided in this process by earlier seekers devoted to the wonder of philosophical geometry, among them Mondrian, Kupka, Kandinsky, Rothko and the great artists of the Italian Renaissance. My aim remains constant: to make art and objects with a presence that can be appreciated on both its physical aspect and its intrinsic content.