Dana Schutz smothers her canvases in thick gobs of viscous pigment. This inaugural London exhibition is a splodgy, orgiastic tribute of her medium, but significant themes are smuggled through if you manage to uncover them.
The Artist's Technique
Schutz’s approach – which has seen her lauded as a leading painters of her generation – is focused on surface, brush strokes, hue and substance. It’s painting for painters, truly advanced art-nerd stuff. If you get your kicks losing yourself in layers of pigment and shading, there’s plenty to engage you for a long time. But it’s Schutz’s grotesque, dreamlike, animated, metaphorical imagery that truly drives the artworks resonate.
Works in the First Gallery
The works in the initial room are populated by giant-headed cyclopses and baying crowds. In one depicts a group of figures trudges mindlessly toward an event outside the frame, brandishing fists and creating a path of trash in their wake. In another features a figure given a huge mask in some bizarre ceremony before a crowd of unattractive followers. It’s not hard to interpret these as social commentary, as commentary on the state of the US, on how society is divided and angry, and mob mentality is transforming all to rubbish.
The Kiss by Dana Schutz.
Shift in Focus
In the other gallery space, Schutz seems to redirect attention to the people in power, instead of the masses that follow them. Mysterious forms stuff their mouths with grapes and steak in a gloomy eating space; a religious figure and a green-clad man recline in gilded seats – whereas in other works a couple comfort one another in a scene filled with corpses, and a female figure, perhaps the artist, rests unclothed, forlorn and powerless in bed.
Inspirations and References
This is ultradense, thickly layered art, filled with allusions. You’ll find the dreamy surreal symbolism of Odilon Redon, 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 an animated series). It would take time spotting all the elements from classic painters with which she’s littered the artworks.
A Model by the exhibitor.
Interpretation and Narratives
Painting this dense, intricate and symbolic leaves itself open to interpretation. I feel as if one is tested on the symbolism of a Titian but, in my view, there are two relatively clear narratives: the people in power, and the public that they bait.
The 2017 Scandal
And Schutz should know about that. In 2017, her artwork a titled piece – a partly abstract representation of the corpse of a historical figure, a young African-American who was lynched by two white men in a southern state in 1955 – caused untold controversy when it was shown at the Whitney Biennial. Critics charged her of profiting from tragedy for her own gain. A protester picketed the painting each day, and some called for it to be destroyed. An artist of European descent depicting – perhaps compassionately – a image of African-American suffering was the major headline of the event. This marked the height of the recent social conflicts, a period that saw people turning on each other even if they were on the same side. In retrospect, in a world increasingly polarized, simplified and more hostile than ever, it seems almost charming that individuals found moments to get angry at this heartfelt, sorrowful painting.
Legacy and Current Work
It could have ruined her career, and Schutz probably wants to move on. But all her subsequent work now exists in its shadow. She unavoidably emerged of that ordeal a changed artist. But what remains constant is how good she is, how she continues to practice in brilliant, sickly, thick and highly topical painting at the top tier.
