Pictures Out of Painting : WestminsterResearch

Key facts

Exploring the possibilities of painting in the context of contemporary art

ROLE

Artist and researcher

VENUES

The Painting Show, British Council Touring Exhibition, group show:

Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania, January 22– March 13, 2016; Limerick City Gallery of Art, Ireland, Feb 9 – April 16, 2017; Aram Art Gallery, Goyang Cultural Foundation, South Korea, July 5 – September 24, 2017

Handmade Colour Pictures, Approach Gallery, London E2, solo show, July 10 – August 7, 2016

Creators	Cumberland, S.
Description	The research interrogates post-conceptual painting and repositions it as picture making. Stepping outside the parameters of painting as a medium, drawing on historical references and investigations of contemporary psychoanalysis, Cumberland explores paintings as pictures, a shift through which the conceptual nature of the work overrides their position as paintings. The research is concerned with why, how and what to paint after conceptual art, and proceeds by making a distinction between post-conceptual painting and a return to painting. As a visual process of analysis takes place, Cumberland takes as his starting point the works of Velázquez and Manet, which provide him with cues for rigorous compositional experimentation. This process is guided by Cumberland’s concern with control of an absence-and-presence (“there” and “not there”) duality in the work. His works examine painting’s pictorial qualities over its objecthood, and imply that the possibility that a work can be both object and picture is one that post-conceptual generic painting (simply a set of signs) is unable to contain.
Portfolio items	Sensible Signs: Pictures and Not Painting After Conceptual Art
	The Painting Show
	Handmade Colour Pictures
Year	2016
Publisher	University of Westminster
Keywords	Paintings, Postconceptual, Pictures.
	CREAM Portfolio
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)	https://doi.org/10.34737/qqqz8

Portfolio items

Sensible Signs: Pictures and Not Painting After Conceptual Art
Cumberland, S. 2019. Sensible Signs: Pictures and Not Painting After Conceptual Art. PhD thesis University of Westminster Westminster School of Arts, College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries https://doi.org/10.34737/qq49w

The Painting Show
Cumberland, S. 2016. The Painting Show. Touring Exhibition: Currently Aram Art Gallery, Goyang Cultural Centre, South Korea. Previously Vilnius Contemporary Art Centre, Lithuania, and Limerick City Gallery of Art, Ireland. 22 Jan 2016 - 24 Sep 2017

Handmade Colour Pictures
Cumberland, S. 2016. Handmade Colour Pictures. The approach 1st Floor, 47 Approach Road Bethnal Green, London E2 9LY 10 Jul - 07 Aug 2016

Related outputs

Dog with Four Rifles
Cumberland, S. 2019. Dog with Four Rifles. Edinburgh College of Art 25 Jul - 25 Aug 2019

Handmade Colour Pictures
Cumberland, S. 2016. Handmade Colour Pictures. The approach 1st Floor, 47 Approach Road Bethnal Green, London E2 9LY 10 Jul - 07 Aug 2016

Four circle paintings
Cumberland, S. 2011. Four circle paintings.

YLLW240
Cumberland, S. 2010. YLLW240. Walker Art Gallery 18 Sep 2010 - 03 Jan 2011

Gone/There
Cumberland, S. 2010. Gone/There.

Stuart Cumberland, Comma 10
Cumberland, S. 2009. Stuart Cumberland, Comma 10.

Stuart Cumberland
Cumberland, S. 2009. Stuart Cumberland.

Fort/Da
Cumberland, S. 2009. Fort/Da.

Stuart Cumberland: Congratulations
Cumberland, S. 2007. Stuart Cumberland: Congratulations.

The way we work now
Cumberland, S. 2005. The way we work now.

Permalink - https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/portfolio/qqqz8/pictures-out-of-painting

Looking Through a Hole, 2015, oil on linen, 122cm × 168cm, detail