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Dana Schutz cakes her canvases in thick gobs of gooey paint. Her first proper London exhibition is a messy, exuberant tribute of her material, but some big messages are subtly embedded if you manage to uncover them.

The Artist's Technique

Her method – earning her acclaim 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. If you get your kicks immersing yourself in coats of color and shadow, there’s enough here to engage you for a while. But it’s Schutz’s grotesque, dreamlike, animated, symbolic visuals that really makes the artworks resonate.

Works in the First Gallery

The works in the initial room are full of giant-headed cyclopses and baying crowds. One piece shows a group of figures trudges mindlessly towards something off canvas, brandishing fists and leaving a trail of trash in their path. In another presents a person given a huge mask in an odd initiation ritual in front of a crowd 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 turning everything to rubbish.

The Kiss by Dana Schutz.

Shift in Focus

In the other gallery space, the artist appears to shift her focus to the leaders and elites, rather than the masses that support them. Shadowy figures stuff their mouths with fruit and meat in a sombre dining room; a cardinal and a green-clad man sit back in golden chairs – whereas in additional pieces a pair comfort one another in a landscape strewn with dead bodies, and a female figure, perhaps the artist, lies unclothed, forlorn and helpless in a bed.

Inspirations and References

This is ultradense, thickly layered art, covered in allusions. You’ll find the ethereal dream-like signs of a symbolist master, the pink, corporeal animation of Philip Guston, the carnival grotesqueries of James Ensor, the large-headed oddities of a contemporary artist. She includes nods on the art historical tradition, numerous references to mainstream media (I am almost 100% sure that one painting is a depiction of a cartoon character from an animated series). You could spend hours identifying all the elements from classic painters with which she’s littered the works.

The Example by Dana Schutz.

Meaning and Stories

Art this complex, intricate and symbolic invites to analysis. It seems like I’m being quizzed on the meaning of a Titian but, in my view, there are a couple of distinct narratives: the ruling class, and the crowds that they provoke.

The 2017 Scandal

And Schutz should know about such dynamics. In 2017, her painting Open Casket – a partly abstract representation of the corpse of a historical figure, a young African-American who was murdered by two white men in a southern state in the mid-20th century – caused untold controversy when it was shown at the Whitney Biennial. She was accused of exploiting black death for her own gain. A protester picketed the work daily, and some called for it to be destroyed. A white artist painting – perhaps compassionately – a image of black pain was the major headline of the event. This marked the height of the late 2010s social conflicts, a period that featured infighting even if they were on the same side. In retrospect, in a world more divided, less nuanced and more hostile than ever, it seems almost charming that people had the time to get angry at this emotional, mournful artwork.

Legacy and Current Work

It could have ruined her career, and the artist likely aims to progress. But all her subsequent work since exists in its influence. She unavoidably came out of that experience a transformed creator. But what hasn’t changed is how good she is, how she continues to practice in masterful, unsettling, thick and highly topical painting at the top tier.