Painting in Time, 2015, The Tetley, Leeds

Painting in Time explores the relationship between time and contemporary painting. Over the last century perspectives towards painting have increasingly been in flux. This exhibition builds on an accumulation of significant moments in the history of art that have marked a shift in both the way that painting is exhibited, and the conceptual framework within which it is produced.
A remarkable event occurred when The National Gallery moved their collections to a secret location outside of London for protection during WWII. As a consequence, a member of the public requested that one painting at a time be brought back to the gallery to offer war torn London ‘aesthetic refreshment’. In response to this request, the Director and Trustees programmed one painting a month to be exhibited for the duration of the war, and this became known as the Picture of the Month scheme. Since then ar tists such as Daniel Buren have continued to challenge how paintings should be viewed by creating site-specific paintings in unconventional contexts.

Painting in Time makes a claim for painting as a time-based medium. The works presented echo the temporality and theatricality of the National Gallery’s curatorial choreography and encourage alternative ways of experiencing art. No longer constrained by the wall, the stretcher or paint, painting has teamed up with sculpture, performance and film and exists within an ‘expanded field’. This exhibition promotes what critic, educator and curator Terry R. Myers would call a ‘coalition’, a joining together of media, which allows the dimension of time to enter the realm of

painting.

The artists participating in Painting in Time are simultaneously pushing the boundaries of painting at this particular moment in time, whilst the medium is in its most expansive state. These artists destabilize the idea of painting as a static object establish painting firmly as a time-based medium. They bring time into their paintings by stepping away from making ‘finished’ paintings. Rather, time is inscribed in the work from the beginning through a variety of strategies, which allow the works to evolve once they exit the studio. Presented within the context of The Tetley’s ethos of curatorial and artistic experimentation, these strategies are manifest in the employment of specialist technology, ephemeral materials, timed performances and audience participation.

FEATURING: POLLY APFELBAUM, CLAIRE ASHLEY, KRISTINA BUCH, KATE HAWKINS, ROBERT CHASE HEISHMAN + MEGAN SCHVANEVELDT, NATASHA KIDD, ROB LEECH, LISA MILROY, YOKO ONO, HAYLEY TOMPKINS, JESSICA WARBOYS AND SARAH KATE WILSON.