RICHARD JACKSON – NEW PAINTINGS
2014-05-26Los Angeles based Jackson has been a pre-eminent figure in American contemporary art since the 1970s, counting Edward Kienholz and Bruce Nauman among his contemporaries. Influenced by both Abstract Expressionism and action painting, Jackson explores a performative painting process which seeks to extend the potential of painting by upending its technical conventions. For Jackson, paint is not a tool used to create a representational image, but is used as a ubiquitous liquid which is spurted, splattered and sprayed over the surface of his installations.
Jackson responds to the high-mindedness of painterly practice by repositioning painting as an everyday experience. He draws on domestic environments and basic human activities, such as defecation and sexual behaviour, to create the foundation of his installations. His approach to artistic practice is democratic as he combines it with references from lowbrow American culture, including motifs from hunting and baseball.
In a characteristic display of crudeness, ‘Pain-t’ (2012) depicts a line-up of boys with their pants pulled down, coated in paint which has been fired from their orifices. During the seminal action, paint was ingested through the figures’ mouths and followed the entire digestive tract before forcefully spurting from their behinds. In a similarly degrading image, ‘Copy Room’ (2014) entails a sex doll positioned on top of a photocopier, legs spread and recalling a scene from debauched office parties as the machine churns out endless replicas of her bodily imprint.
Opposite – Who Painted My Horse Yellow?, 2013—2014
Exhibition runs through to July 26th, 2014
Hauser & Wirth
23 Savile Row
London
W1S 2ET
