‘Must-See: Dana Schutz Turns Celebration into a Warning’ by Beniamino Foschini
2026
Dances, gatherings and processions populate Dana Schutz’s exhibition, ‘Trouble and Appearance’ at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, forming scenes of conviviality that draw from the artist’s vast pictorial memory. The Hill (2023), for example, stages Schutz’s view of art history, depicting a seemingly merry band of artists around a hill painting en plein air. Pictorial references range from the usual suspects like Philip Guston and René Magritte, to more personal touchstones like Joyce Pensato. In a playful nod to Céline Sciamma’s 2019 film Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a blonde girl in an old-fashioned blue dress is seen to crouch at the bottom of the composition, wielding a torch like a paintbrush as she ‘paints’ a flame onto a canvas.
