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Dana Schutz cakes her canvases in thick gobs of viscous pigment. Her inaugural London show is a splodgy, orgiastic tribute of her medium, but some big messages are subtly embedded if you manage to uncover them.

Schutz's Approach

Her method – earning her acclaim as a leading figurative artists of her generation – is focused on texture, application, hue and substance. It’s painting for painters, truly advanced aesthetic geekery. Should you enjoy losing yourself in layers of pigment and shading, there’s plenty to engage you for a long time. But it’s her bizarre, surreal, cartoony, metaphorical imagery that truly drives the artworks resonate.

Initial Exhibition Pieces

These pieces in the initial room are populated by enormous one-eyed beings and baying crowds. In one depicts a group of figures stomps senselessly towards something outside the frame, brandishing fists and creating a path of debris in their wake. A different work features a person given a huge mask in some bizarre ceremony before a horde of ugly supporters. It’s not hard to interpret these as social commentary, as observation on America’s condition, on how society is divided and angry, and mob mentality 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 people in power, rather than the masses that support them. Mysterious forms fill their faces with fruit and meat in a sombre dining room; a religious figure and a green-clad man sit back in gilded seats – whereas in other works a pair console each other in a landscape filled with corpses, and a female figure, maybe Schutz herself, rests naked, desolate and helpless in bed.

Inspirations and References

This is ultradense, thickly layered art, filled with allusions. There’s the dreamy surreal symbolism of Odilon Redon, the fleshy pink cartoonishness of an American painter, the festive bizarre elements of a Belgian artist, the large-headed oddities of a contemporary artist. She includes nods on the art historical tradition, countless nods to pop culture (It seems certain that one painting is a portrait of a cartoon character from an animated series). You could spend hours spotting all the elements from classic painters with which she’s littered the works.

A Model by the exhibitor.

Interpretation and Narratives

Art this complex, complex and allegorical leaves itself open to analysis. It seems like one is tested on the symbolism of a Titian but, for my money, there are a couple of distinct narratives: the ruling class, and the public that they provoke.

Controversy and Impact

And Schutz should know about such dynamics. In 2017, her artwork a titled piece – a semi-abstracted depiction of the body of Emmett Till, a black teenager who was lynched by racist perpetrators in Mississippi in the mid-20th century – caused untold controversy when it was displayed at the Whitney Biennial. Critics charged her of exploiting black death for her own gain. A protester demonstrated against the work each day, and others demanded it to be removed. A white artist depicting – perhaps compassionately – a image of black pain was the major headline of the event. This marked the height of the recent social conflicts, a time that featured infighting even if they were on the identical team. In retrospect, in a world more divided, simplified and angrier than ever, it feels almost quaint that individuals found moments to get angry at this emotional, mournful painting.

Aftermath and Recent Art

It could have ruined her professional life, and Schutz probably wants to progress. But all her subsequent work now exists in its shadow. She inevitably emerged of that experience a changed artist. But what hasn’t changed is her exceptional skill, how she continues to practice in masterful, unsettling, gloopy and deeply political art at the highest level.