A Bigger Splash: Painting After Performance at Tate Modern

The exhibition A Bigger Splash: Painting After Performance, running at the Tate Modern, is a clear example of how many established artists, such as Pollock and Hockney, have paved the way for an all-accessible kind of art. This happened long before a time when anybody possessing a digital device – and therefore being able to easily take pictures or make videos – could consider themselves an artist.

Structured in 13 rooms, the exhibition displays several works from the 50s until the present day. It shows how the concept of painting has evolved – and keeps evolving – as new media is created and changes our perspective, often causing quite a heated debate on the legitimacy of its use and functions.

The advent of machines capable of instantly capturing real life has served its purpose for the likes of Pinot Gallizio, the members of the Japanese Gutai Association, or the Vienna Actionists, to name a few artists whose work is included in A Bigger Splash. Each with a different point of view and aim, these artists have all benefited from the coming of technology, which they used in an attempt to explain their work, or to involve more – or less – conscious spectators.

Take Krasiński for instance. His Untitled installation, found in room six, is made up of twelve hanging mirrors with a blue tape, which hints at the artist’s home studio decoration. The work has the original intention both of linking and demarcating the space, where the private sphere and the work area coincide and collide. This installation is a perfect demonstration of the artist’s will to engage his audience so that everyone not only takes part in it, but is also a piece of the œuvre.

Should we expect to find and understand the message the artist wanted to convey in his/her work, or is art subjective? The case remains unsolved, but A Bigger Splash definitely supports the first option, featuring artists who believed that the creative process is just as important as the final product.

Rita Vicinanza

A Bigger Splash: Painting After Performance is at Tate Modern from 14^th November 2012 until 1^st April 2013. For further information or to book visit the gallery’s website here.