🔗 Share this article Dana Schutz Review: An Orgy of Thick Paint from the Painter Who Shocked New York The American painter cakes her canvases in thick gobs of gooey paint. Her first proper London show is a messy, exuberant celebration of her medium, but significant themes are smuggled through if you manage to uncover them. Schutz's Approach Schutz’s approach – which has seen her lauded as one of the most important painters of her generation – is all about texture, application, colour and materiality. This is art for artists, real high-level art-nerd stuff. If you get your kicks immersing yourself in coats of color and shading, there’s enough here to keep you going for a long time. But it’s her bizarre, dreamlike, animated, symbolic visuals that really makes the artworks resonate. Works in the First Gallery The works in the first gallery are full of enormous one-eyed beings and roaring mobs. One piece depicts a group of figures trudges mindlessly towards something off canvas, waving hands and creating a path of trash in their path. A different work presents a figure receiving a huge mask in an odd ceremony before a horde of ugly supporters. It’s not hard to interpret these as political, as observation on the state of the US, on societal splits and furious, and crowd psychology is transforming all to waste. An Embrace by the artist. Changing Themes In the other gallery space, the artist appears to shift her focus to the leaders and elites, rather than the crowds that support them. Shadowy figures fill their faces with fruit and meat in a gloomy eating space; a cardinal and a green-clad man sit back in golden chairs – whereas in additional pieces a pair console each other in a scene strewn with corpses, and a female figure, maybe Schutz herself, rests naked, desolate and powerless in bed. Influences and Allusions This is extremely complex, multi-layered stuff, covered in allusions. You’ll find the ethereal dream-like signs of Odilon Redon, the fleshy pink cartoonishness of Philip Guston, the festive bizarre elements of James Ensor, the big-headed weirdness of Paul McCarthy. She includes nods on the history of painting, numerous references to mainstream media (I am almost 100% sure that one painting is a portrait of Handsome Squidward from SpongeBob SquarePants). It would take time spotting all the elements from classic painters with which she’s littered the artworks. The Example by Dana Schutz. Interpretation and Narratives Painting this dense, intricate and symbolic invites to analysis. I feel as if I’m being quizzed on the symbolism of a Renaissance masterpiece but, in my view, there are a couple of distinct themes: the ruling class, and the public that they bait. Controversy and Impact And Schutz should know about such dynamics. In 2017, her painting a titled piece – a partly abstract representation of the body of a historical figure, a young African-American who was murdered by two white men in Mississippi in the mid-20th century – sparked immense debate when it was displayed at the a New York exhibition. Critics charged her of profiting from tragedy for her own gain. A protester picketed the work daily, and some demanded it to be destroyed. A white artist depicting – arguably with great sympathy – a scene of black pain was the biggest story of the biennial. It was the peak of the late 2010s culture wars, a time that featured infighting even if they were on the identical team. Looking back now, in a world increasingly polarized, less nuanced and angrier than ever, it feels almost quaint that individuals found moments to get upset at this emotional, mournful painting. Aftermath and Recent Art It could have ruined her professional life, and the artist likely aims to progress. But everything she’s done since exists in its influence. She unavoidably emerged of that experience a changed artist. But what remains constant is her exceptional skill, how she continues to practice in masterful, unsettling, gloopy and deeply political painting at the highest level.