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Lot Essay
‘Images can be used like material and not just as appropriation or pastiche; they can be more slippery and nuanced. When they actually begin to play off each other and open up new meanings, it can be the best feeling in the world’ – Dana Schutz
Partially obscured by black, oblong forms, two nude models pose candidly within a Wunderkammer in paint in Dana Schutz’s Set Up, 2007. The scene overflows with objects: a plaster bust, a woven basket, a regal pineapple surrounded by a cornucopia of fruit. In the background, a turquoise curtain tumbles dramatically to expose a blackened chamber. Rendered in vibrant, sunny tones, Schutz’s tableau offers up a scene of artistic process, a meta picture within the larger work: in the foreground, a blue blanket reveals a platform onto which the models have arranged themselves, preparing for their portrait. Schutz often structures her paintings around hypothetical conditions about which a drama can be imagined and enacted. Operating as both subject and backdrop, Set Up calls out for a plot, and how stories function in images is a fundamental consideration for the artist: ‘I think it’s interesting how narrative works in a painting – it’s not dictated in real time, but it does have its own time. Because paintings are typically still, it’s awkward to think of them as time-based, and it might be easier to think of a painting as fictional rather than narrative’ (D. Schutz quoted in conversation with J. Earnest, Brooklyn Rail, June 2012). Schutz’s revels in her powers as a creator of worlds, be they caustic, humorous or grotesque. If Set Up contemplates the act of painting, then the artist has fashioned herself simultaneously its maker and chief protagonist.
Partially obscured by black, oblong forms, two nude models pose candidly within a Wunderkammer in paint in Dana Schutz’s Set Up, 2007. The scene overflows with objects: a plaster bust, a woven basket, a regal pineapple surrounded by a cornucopia of fruit. In the background, a turquoise curtain tumbles dramatically to expose a blackened chamber. Rendered in vibrant, sunny tones, Schutz’s tableau offers up a scene of artistic process, a meta picture within the larger work: in the foreground, a blue blanket reveals a platform onto which the models have arranged themselves, preparing for their portrait. Schutz often structures her paintings around hypothetical conditions about which a drama can be imagined and enacted. Operating as both subject and backdrop, Set Up calls out for a plot, and how stories function in images is a fundamental consideration for the artist: ‘I think it’s interesting how narrative works in a painting – it’s not dictated in real time, but it does have its own time. Because paintings are typically still, it’s awkward to think of them as time-based, and it might be easier to think of a painting as fictional rather than narrative’ (D. Schutz quoted in conversation with J. Earnest, Brooklyn Rail, June 2012). Schutz’s revels in her powers as a creator of worlds, be they caustic, humorous or grotesque. If Set Up contemplates the act of painting, then the artist has fashioned herself simultaneously its maker and chief protagonist.