performative paint sculptures by richard jackson

performative paint sculptures by richard jackson
(above) painting with two balls, 1997
installation S.M.A.K. 2014
photo by dirk pauwels

richard jackson: ain’t painting a pain
S.M.A.K, gent
now through june 1st, 2014

conceived as a series of room-scale installations, ‘ain’t painting a pain’ is the first retrospective devoted to one of the most radical artists of the last 40 years. accompanied by over 150 of american artist richard jackson’s related preparatory drawings, works on paper, and models, the exhibit describes his exuberant and irreverent take on action painting. dramatically extending the performative parameters of sculpture and painting, the large-scale, walk-in installations are comprised of monumental kinetic installations, illustrated environments and site-specific amalgamations of mixed medias.

at the exhibit’s centerpiece is jackson’s ‘painting with two balls’, a massive action painting which uses a ford pinto to power two large spinning balls. the motorized spheres saturated in vibrantly colored paint spill a chromatic explosion in all directions throughout the large room it occupies.

painting with two balls, 1997
installation S.M.A.K. 2014
photos by dirk pauwels

in one of jackon’s several autobiographical works, the more philosophical installation ‘1000 clocks’ was designed to mark the artist’s 50th birthday. every surface of the gallery walls — filled from ceiling to floor — is canvassed with black and white ticking time tellers, all set for the same time.

1000 clocks
installation S.M.A.K. 2014
photo by dirk pauwels

1000 clocks (detail)
installation S.M.A.K. 2014
photo by dirk pauwels

with ‘la grande jatte (after georges seurat)’ the artist recreates the late 1880s pointillist masterpiece by dipping pellets into paint and firing them from a pellet gun directly at the canvas. what began in 1992 is still barely 10% complete, even with approximately 90,000 shots at the work. no matter the labor jackson applies to its production, the painting will never be completed, amplifying seurat’s intensive painting technique, and establishing the subversive attitude that jackson would bring to his interpretation of art historical icons.

‘le grande jatte’

‘le grande jatte’ (detail)

‘the laundry room (death of marat) transforms jacques-louis david’s 1793 pieta of the french revolution into a three-dimensional, life-size vignette that viewers may enter. jackson’s update links the extremism of the french reign of terror to the american war on terror, and the highly polarized political debate that defines both periods.

the laundry room (death of marat), 2009
installation S.M.A.K. 2014
photo by dirk pauwels