In Conversation: Dana Schutz and Nell Painter

Tags for: In Conversation: Dana Schutz and Nell Painter
  • Lecture
Saturday, January 20, 2018, 1:00–2:00 p.m.
Location:  Gartner Auditorium
Suzanne and Paul Westlake Performing Arts Center
Gartner Auditorium at Cleveland Museum of Art

About The Event

Dana Schutz’s exhibition Eating Atom Bombs at the Transformer Station debuts a new series of paintings that reflect the turbulent political atmosphere in the wake of the 2016 US election. Although American society may seem impossibly divided, the exhibition suggests that ultimately this uncertainty may be what unites us. Schutz joins acclaimed historian and artist Nell Painter at the Cleveland Museum of Art in a public conversation about the possibilities and limitations of painting as a medium at our particular historical and political moment. The panelists will also touch on the controversy surrounding Schutz’s painting Open Casket, included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial, which is based on the subject of Emmett Till's open casket funeral in 1955. While Open Casket will not be part of Eating Atom Bombs, the work provides an opportunity to contemplate questions about what art can and should say, as well as the responsibility of art museums in these conversations. Former director of Princeton’s African American Studies program, Painter is the author of the critically acclaimed book The History of White People. A working artist, Painter completed an MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2012. Her paintings engage a global history of race, gender, and self-perception. Free; registration required.