Explosion: Painting as Action

After the second world war, a number of painters in different parts of the world began to attack painting´s fundamental assumptions in ways that were at once both aggressive and playful. The creative act itself was as important as the painting that resulted from it. In this borderland between painting and performance, chance or the spectator were often recruited as co-creators of the work. In recent years, interest in performance art has increased, and with it interest in its roots. "Explosion!: Painting as Action" explores the connections and cross fertilizations between painting, performance and conceptual art. The Japanese Gutai group has an important part as well as artists like Lynda Benglis, Cai Guo-Qiang, Allan Kaprow, Yves Klein, Rivane Neuenschwander, Jackson Pollock, Carolee Schneemann and Shozo Shimamoto, among others.