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Dana Schutz
Edited by Gabriella Belli.
Dana Schutz (born 1976) declared her painterly intentions from early in her work, and the fecundity of her visual world has not diminished over the decade-long course of her career, which has seen her work acquired by major museums across the world. Her paintings have always been characterized by bright, almost throwaway cartoonish colors that seem cheery in all but content. Once described as possessing a “careless cruelty,” Schutz's art plunges into dark fantasy realms to dredge up such images as face-eating heads, self-mutilators, child suicides, persons maimed, blindfolded or bound in terrible ways--all parading before the viewer in a genial palette that would be ideally suited to the depicting of a happy spring day. Schutz qualifies that, while her subjects are frequently self-devouring, they are “self-created too [...] They are defined by their own production.” This paperback monograph surveys work from her debut in 2002 to 2010.
Featured image, Dana Schutz's Party, 2004, is reproduced from Dana Schutz.
"In her works, the canvas seems to be dragged by the chromatic rhythm of the figures and to be soaked with vital expressionism. Yet, her painting is not exactly expressionist, even though the term is usually applied to a painting where the colour, applied with free and spontaneous strokes, carries out a distortion or deformation of the human figure. This description would seem to fit a large part of her production, however the artist does not aim at the direct communication of her state of mind but observes her characters objectively: she has invited them but has not added any judgment. A real expressionist would have presented them as images of horror or anguish, while Dana Schutz does not express any comments. Violence and absurdity are present in her works but she does not feel the need to express violence and absurdity. Her approach is not that of a tormented soul but rather that of an extremely curious mind."
Gabriella Belli, excerpted from the introduction to Dana Schutz.
FORMAT: Pbk, 6.5 x 9.5 in. / 128 pgs / 30 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $40.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $50 ISBN: 9788836618712 PUBLISHER: Silvana Editoriale AVAILABLE: 10/31/2011 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA AU/NZ AFR ME
Published by Silvana Editoriale. Edited by Gabriella Belli.
Dana Schutz (born 1976) declared her painterly intentions from early in her work, and the fecundity of her visual world has not diminished over the decade-long course of her career, which has seen her work acquired by major museums across the world. Her paintings have always been characterized by bright, almost throwaway cartoonish colors that seem cheery in all but content. Once described as possessing a “careless cruelty,” Schutz's art plunges into dark fantasy realms to dredge up such images as face-eating heads, self-mutilators, child suicides, persons maimed, blindfolded or bound in terrible ways--all parading before the viewer in a genial palette that would be ideally suited to the depicting of a happy spring day. Schutz qualifies that, while her subjects are frequently self-devouring, they are “self-created too [...] They are defined by their own production.” This paperback monograph surveys work from her debut in 2002 to 2010.
