Short Stories about Painting

The project explored the hypothesis that meaning, within contemporary painting practice, is embedded in physical undertaking, working methods and materials. It drew upon my practice experience, and how that was informed by films such as Painters Painting, 1973, by Emile de Antonio, documenting the New York art scene in a series of studio conversations.

Twenty artists, writers, researchers and critics participated. The project manifestations as a whole comprise a coherent triangulation of experience, scientific research and mythology in: an exhibition; filmed interviews with artists; a book of interviews and stories, fictional and factual; a symposium; and a website. The Painting Conservation Team at Tate Britain collaborated on the ethical and physical challenges of restoring and preserving internationally important artefacts of painting.

As well bringing a spectrum of approaches to bear on the subject, from scientific research (e.g. the microscopic examination of paint cross-sections, and the formulation of chemical formulae for new materials that artists' work demands), through new historical insights from the analysis of and reflection on particular paintings, to absurdist, revelatory humour, the project sought to record the often overlooked, casually exchanged insights about painting practice that occur in artists’ studios.

The symposium, with speakers who had contributed to various aspects of the project, enabled some of our findings to be shared directly with the artistic research community, as well as the wider public. It also provided an opportunity to test whether this form of conversational exchange may elicit insights from the artists that would remain outside normal forums of exchange.