The Artist Dana Schutz Exhibition Overview: A Feast of Thick Paint from the Artist Who Outraged NYC
The American painter smothers her paintings in thick gobs of viscous pigment. This first proper London show is a splodgy, orgiastic tribute of her medium, but some big messages are subtly embedded if you can scratch your way towards them.
The Artist's Technique
Her method – earning her acclaim as one of the most important painters of her generation – is all about texture, application, hue and substance. This is art for artists, real high-level art-nerd stuff. Should you enjoy losing yourself in layers of pigment and shadow, there’s plenty to engage you for a while. But it’s Schutz’s grotesque, dreamlike, animated, symbolic visuals that truly drives the artworks resonate.
Works in the First Gallery
The works in the initial room are full of giant-headed cyclopses and roaring mobs. In one shows a collection of forms trudges mindlessly toward an event off canvas, waving hands and leaving a trail of trash in their path. A different work features a figure receiving a huge mask in some bizarre ceremony in front of a horde of unattractive followers. It’s easy to interpret these as social commentary, as observation on the state of the US, on societal splits and furious, and mob mentality is turning everything to rubbish.
An Embrace by Dana Schutz.
Shift in Focus
In the other gallery space, Schutz seems to shift her focus to the leaders and elites, rather than the crowds that follow them. Shadowy figures stuff their mouths with grapes and steak in a sombre dining room; a cardinal and a green-clad man sit back in gilded seats – whereas in other works a pair console each other in a landscape filled with corpses, and a woman, maybe Schutz herself, lies naked, desolate and helpless in bed.
Inspirations and References
This is extremely complex, multi-layered art, filled with allusions. You’ll find the dreamy surreal symbolism of a symbolist master, the pink, corporeal animation of Philip Guston, the carnival grotesqueries of James Ensor, the big-headed weirdness of a contemporary artist. There are riffs on the history of painting, countless nods to pop culture (It seems certain that one painting is a depiction of Handsome Squidward from SpongeBob SquarePants). It would take time identifying all the bits of Cézanne and David with which she’s sprinkled the works.
The Example by the exhibitor.
Meaning and Stories
Painting this dense, intricate and symbolic leaves itself open to analysis. It seems like one is tested on the meaning of a Titian but, for my money, there are two relatively clear narratives: the ruling class, and the public that they provoke.
The 2017 Scandal
And Schutz should know about that. In 2017, her painting a titled piece – a semi-abstracted depiction of the body of Emmett Till, a young African-American who was lynched by racist perpetrators in Mississippi in the mid-20th century – sparked immense debate when it was shown at the Whitney Biennial. She was accused of profiting from tragedy for her own gain. An activist demonstrated against the work daily, and others called for it to be destroyed. A white artist depicting – perhaps compassionately – a image of black pain was the biggest story of the event. This marked the height of the recent social conflicts, a time that featured infighting even if they were on the identical team. In retrospect, in a society increasingly polarized, less nuanced and angrier than ever, it feels almost quaint that individuals found moments to get upset at this emotional, mournful artwork.
Legacy and Current Work
This might have ended her career, and the artist likely aims to progress. But all her subsequent work now exists in its shadow. She unavoidably emerged of that experience a transformed creator. But what remains constant is her exceptional skill, how she continues to practice in brilliant, sickly, thick and highly topical painting at the highest level.