Dana Schutz smothers her canvases in thick gobs of viscous pigment. Her first proper London exhibition is a messy, exuberant tribute of her medium, but significant themes are smuggled through if you can scratch your way towards them.
The Artist's Technique
Schutz’s approach – which has seen her lauded as a leading figurative artists of her generation – is all about texture, application, hue and substance. It’s painting for painters, truly advanced aesthetic geekery. Should you enjoy immersing yourself in coats of color 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.
Initial Exhibition Pieces
These pieces in the initial room are full of enormous one-eyed beings and baying crowds. In one depicts a collection of forms stomps senselessly toward an event outside the frame, brandishing fists and leaving a trail of trash in their wake. In another features a person given a large disguise in an odd ceremony in front of a crowd of unattractive followers. It’s easy to interpret these as political, as commentary on America’s condition, on how society is divided and angry, and mob mentality is turning everything to waste.
The Kiss by Dana Schutz.
Shift in Focus
In the second exhibition area, Schutz seems to redirect attention to the people in power, rather than the crowds that follow them. Shadowy figures fill their faces with fruit and meat in a gloomy eating space; a religious figure and a green-clad man sit back in golden chairs – whereas in additional pieces a pair comfort one another in a scene strewn with corpses, and a female figure, maybe Schutz herself, lies naked, forlorn and helpless in bed.
Inspirations and References
This is ultradense, thickly layered art, covered in references. You’ll find the dreamy surreal symbolism of Odilon Redon, the pink, corporeal animation of an American painter, the carnival grotesqueries of a Belgian artist, the large-headed oddities of a contemporary artist. She includes nods on the art historical tradition, numerous references to pop culture (I am almost 100% sure that one painting is a portrait of Handsome Squidward from SpongeBob SquarePants). You could spend hours identifying all the bits of Cézanne and David with which she’s sprinkled the artworks.
A Model by Dana Schutz.
Meaning and Stories
Painting this dense, intricate and symbolic leaves itself open to analysis. I feel as if one is tested on the meaning of a Renaissance masterpiece but, for my money, there are two relatively clear narratives: the ruling class, and the public that they provoke.
The 2017 Scandal
And the artist understands about that. In 2017, her artwork Open Casket – a partly abstract representation of the corpse of a historical figure, a black teenager who was lynched by two white men in a southern state in 1955 – sparked immense debate when it was shown at the Whitney Biennial. Critics charged her of profiting from tragedy for her personal benefit. A protester picketed the work each day, and some demanded it to be removed. An artist of European descent depicting – perhaps compassionately – a image of black pain was the major headline of the biennial. This marked the height of the recent culture wars, a period that featured infighting even if they were on the identical team. Looking back now, in a world more divided, less nuanced and more hostile than ever, it feels almost quaint that individuals found moments to get angry at this heartfelt, sorrowful painting.
Aftermath and Recent Art
It could have ruined her career, and the artist likely aims to move on. But everything she’s done since exists in its shadow. She inevitably emerged of that ordeal a changed artist. But what hasn’t changed is her exceptional skill, how she continues to practice in masterful, unsettling, thick and highly topical painting at the highest level.
