Flatbed Pictures

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Angela Leach, "AR Shape 19," 2020

acrylic on panel, 37" x 24" x 2"

American Art critic, Leo Steinberg gave a lecture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1968 where he argued that a fundamental shift occurred in painting in New York in the early 1950s. This shift was from paintings that had always been angulated towards a vertical human posture to that of a horizontal pictorial surface like a flatbed printing bed. If you consider even Picasso's cubism work, there is one way up. They were painted while standing vertical at an easel and meant to be viewed in that orientation only. But then in the 1950s, Leo states, starting with Robert Rauschenberg, and Dubuffet, you see artists breaking free from this to create works that simulate tabletops or the studio floor. Steinberg felt that this was the most important development in post-modern painting.

This exhibition will showcase artists who work in the tradition of a flatbed approach to painting. Artists include; Harry Kiyooka, Rhys Douglas Farrell, Joe Fleming, Lauren Walker, Ben Skinner, Fiona Ackerman, Curtis Cutshaw, Nate McLeod, Tia Halliday, Darija Radakovic, Mario Trejo, Angela Leach, and Sara Robichaud.