I do love painting, and at the end of
January I saw an exhibition of paintings by American Dana Schutz that
completely blew my socks, and was at another level than almost any other
contemporary painting I’ve seen. It was at the rather brilliant Hepworth Gallery
in Wakefield, and I travelled up keen to see the show, surprised and curious
that this much feted Brooklyn based painter was showing in Wakie of all places.
I say that, but the Hepworth gallery is a major international exhibition space,
with the Yorkshire Sculpture Park also a short drive away. It’s just that I
used to have a studio right behind where the gallery has been built near the
river, on the top floor of an old mill. It was a huge and cheap space, the
biggest space I’ve ever worked in, which I shared with two other artists, but
really had to myself as they never turned up, which, in my experience, is often
the way with these studio set-ups. I’ve often worked in shared studios, hoping
to meet and engage with other artists, but I’ve been the only one ever there.
It’s sadly defined much of my experience as an ‘artist’.
Anyway, Schutz’s large, colourful, funny,
paintings were a truly joyous revelation that had me grinning from ear to ear
as I walked around.
'Piano In The Rain'
'Bra Removal'
Populated by rather melancholy individuals,
couples, or large crowds, in scenes of weird psycho-dramas all of their own
making, and in their own painted world, they were so inventive and witty. But
the painter’s technical dexterity and seemingly effortless skill left me truly
taken aback. The use of colour was terrific for one, but the handling was in
another league. Each mark, dash, and
stroke and wonderful line and shape seemed to have this strange life of it’s
own within this amazing cohesive whole. They were so fresh and alive. They also
seemed to take on the legacy of Picasso, in a way that no other figurative
painter seems to want to touch, and turn it inside out and make it so
contemporary. I can’t remember when I’ve seen a better painter, I really can’t.
I’m so glad I went.
'The Flasher'
I’d previously only ever seen one of
Schutz’s paintings before, in New York a few years ago, and had not been that
impressed by their Expressionist tendencies, as I was desperate to move away
from these in my own work. But these works in Wakefield were also very recent,
and seemed much more sophisticated and fresher in their technique than the one
I had seen then. Weirdly, when I was painting in that studio in Wakefield I was
also painting very large figurative canvasses that contained their dense
narratives and psycho-dramas of their own.
I also went to see David Tremlett’s wall drawings (not paintings, he is very distinct about this) at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham yesterday, which were really impressive.
Their blocks and bands of colour and geometry really chimed with some of my
current thinking for my own paintings, so that was really inspiring. I really
think I should look further at Tremlett’s work, and I shall go and see this
again when I’m not with my wonderful, but very loud, daughter who just loves
testing the acoustics at Ikon, as well as the Martin Creed singing lift (which
both my children love).
3 Wall Drawings
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