Modern Painters

procedural approach to generate blurredabstractions, inventing a process ofmechanized expressionism. His squeegeesmearing and scraping give the abstractÀHOGDGLVWDQFHGHYHQQHVVWKDWHYRNHVideas about manufacturing, withinthe context of both art and capitalism.Schmidhofer repeats the procedureLQPLQLDWXUHRUJDQL]LQJWKHURFNV³WKHSDLQWLQJVZLWKLQWKHSDLQWLQJ³LQWRagreeable displays for perusal and possiblepurchase, irradiating them with hyper-bolic light sources that are meant to seduce.The imposing weightiness of RichterWDNHVDGHWRXULQWR1HZ$JHFRQVXPHUculture, as related painterly processes areput to radically different ends.The myriad ways to treat the goo ofSDLQWVSHDNRIERWKGHVWUXFWLRQDQGFDUHIXOPDQLSXODWLRQ:KHQLPDJHVEUHDN``````down into lawless, senseless viscosity,there is a threat to the order of things.This threat is productive, as theviscosity can relay messages abouthuman behavior: The goo tells us aboutZKDWZHZDQW7REHSXULÀHGWREH``````DKHURWRHDWWRNLOOWRFRYHW7KHSOLJKWof the contemporary painter is to be awareof the implications in all the ways thatpaint can be manipulated; in some cases,that means teasing out meaning fromevery squish, ooze, and splash. MPANGELA DUFRESNEBLOUINARTINFO.COM JUNE/JULY 2016 MODERN PAINTERS 57These artists all revealhow elastic paint can becomein the service of meaning.