Five Years: On Surface brings together Georg Baselitz, Frank Auerbach, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Willie Stewart, and Rebecca Ness around surface as both byproduct of process and central narrative conceit. Baselitz's architectural impasto unifies a fractured composition; Auerbach's worked surface is the residue of erasure and reconstruction; Lichtenstein layers Ben-Day dots against gestural brushstrokes to create interior distance; Warhol's silkscreen imposes flat remove; Stewart and Ness use surface to substantiate and push back against the image itself. The exhibition proposes surface as a new axis through which to understand painting across five decades.
