The Artist Dana Schutz Review: An Orgy of Gloop from the Painter Who Outraged New York
The American painter cakes her paintings in thick gobs of viscous pigment. This inaugural London exhibition is a messy, exuberant celebration of her material, but some big messages are subtly embedded if you can scratch your way towards them.
The Artist's Technique
Her method – which has seen her lauded as a leading painters of her era – is focused on texture, application, colour and materiality. This is art for artists, real high-level art-nerd stuff. Should you enjoy losing yourself in coats of color and shadow, there’s plenty to keep you going for a long time. But it’s Schutz’s grotesque, dreamlike, animated, metaphorical imagery that really makes the artworks resonate.
Initial Exhibition Pieces
The works in the initial room are full of giant-headed cyclopses and baying crowds. One piece depicts a collection of forms trudges mindlessly towards something off canvas, brandishing fists and creating a path of trash in their wake. In another features a figure receiving a large disguise in an odd ceremony before a horde of ugly supporters. It’s not hard to read any of this as political, as observation on the state of the US, on societal splits and angry, and mob mentality is transforming all to waste.
The Kiss by the artist.
Shift in Focus
In the other gallery space, Schutz seems to shift her focus to the people in power, rather than the crowds that follow them. Shadowy figures stuff their mouths with grapes and steak in a gloomy eating space; a cardinal and a man in green sit back in golden chairs – while in other works a pair comfort one another in a landscape strewn with corpses, and a female figure, maybe Schutz herself, lies unclothed, desolate and powerless in bed.
Inspirations and References
This is extremely complex, multi-layered art, covered in references. You’ll find the dreamy surreal symbolism of Odilon Redon, the fleshy pink cartoonishness of Philip Guston, the festive bizarre elements of a Belgian artist, the big-headed weirdness of Paul McCarthy. There are riffs on the art historical tradition, countless nods to mainstream media (I am almost 100% sure that one painting is a portrait of a cartoon character from SpongeBob SquarePants). It would take time identifying all the bits of Cézanne and David with which she’s littered the artworks.
The Example by Dana Schutz.
Interpretation and Narratives
Painting this dense, intricate and symbolic leaves itself open to analysis. I feel as if I’m being quizzed on the meaning of a Titian but, in my view, there are a couple of distinct narratives: the people in power, and the public that they provoke.
The 2017 Scandal
And the artist understands about such dynamics. In 2017, her painting a titled piece – a semi-abstracted depiction of the corpse of a historical figure, a black teenager who was murdered by racist perpetrators in Mississippi in 1955 – sparked immense debate when it was displayed at the Whitney Biennial. Critics charged her of profiting from tragedy for her personal benefit. A protester demonstrated against the work each day, and some demanded it to be removed. An artist of European descent painting – arguably with great sympathy – a image of black pain was the major headline of the biennial. It was the peak of the recent social conflicts, a period that featured infighting even if they were on the identical team. Looking back now, in a world more divided, less nuanced and angrier than ever, it seems almost charming that individuals found moments to get upset at this emotional, mournful artwork.
Legacy and Current Work
This might have ended her professional life, and the artist likely aims to progress. But all her subsequent work now exists in its shadow. She unavoidably came out of that experience a changed artist. But what hasn’t changed is how good she is, how she continues to practice in brilliant, sickly, thick and highly topical art at the highest level.