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In Conversation: Dana Schutz - WeAreOCA

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In Conversation: Dana Schutz

Dana
Last week Leanne and I attended a conversation between Turner Prize nominee Dexter Dalwood and American Artist Dana Schutz at the Hepworth Gallery.
Schutz’s paintings are large scale gestural, physical works. Dalwood describes them as ‘generous’ as she explores the fronterly nature of a painting and its relationship with the viewer. She has a desire to fill the canvas and create a myriad of possibilities of interpretation.
She seems to have an innate sense of censorship, not wanting to create photo-realistic images, for example in her work ‘Shaven’ she describes the form of the person depicted as being more akin to a wooden doll. There is a deliberate absence of eyes in her figures; this she says is because she doesn’t want her work to appear illustrative.
Her work is loaded and almost crude at times but I wouldn’t consider it obscene or offensive despite some of the subject matter. What I find particularly interesting is for Schutz the title dominates the making of her paintings, they are narratives that she describes as being ‘social’. In a world of untitled works how important is the title, should it really dictate the work?
Schutz
There is a sense of humour in her work. When asked about her piece ‘Face eater’ and whether she had used reference material to make it and if she studied any anatomical images, she responded ‘no, I just tried to imagine how you would physically go about eating your own face’
Her work doesn’t translate in reproduction and is well worth seeing in real life. Her show at the Hepworth continues until 2 February and her work is featured in the Body Language exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. OCA students are invited to attend a study visit to this show on Friday 21 February. Places are free; to book yours please email enquiries@oca-uk.com.
 
Image Credit 1: Dana Schutz, Assembling an Octopus, 2013, oil on canvas, 10 x 13’. http://artforum.com/words/id=43489
Image Credit 2:Dana Schutz, “Flasher” (2012), oil on canvas (all images courtesy Friedrich Petzel Gallery)  http://hyperallergic.com/51668/dana-schutz-piano-in-the-rain-friedrich-petzel-gallery/


Posted by author: Joanne

3 thoughts on “In Conversation: Dana Schutz

  • Expanding on Joanne’s point about there being an absence of eyes within the paintings, Schutz also believes that eyes in a painting can be too confrontational to the viewer and distract from other important elements within the work.
    Another interesting point that became apparent in the talk was her struggle with creating her work, and at points within her career she had no direction. You always seem to imagine that an artist has an idea of what they want to create, but Schutz became anxious and ‘awkward’ after she graduated, and a gallery even turned down her work, which was obviously quite a big blow for her. But it is evident now that through hard work and determination Schutz is a successful artist who has had multiple exhibitions worldwide. So, I suppose the message to anyone who wishes to pursue his or her art practice further, is that it may not be easy at times but never give up because the hard work can pay off as in Schutz’s case.

  • I went to the same talk. I found Schutz’s comments about language interesting. If I remember rightly, she said that she looks at how language can structure an image, that, for her, the title often comes before the image, referring to her painting ‘Piano in the rain’ as an example.

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