1970s Art: Bad Painting

"Bad" Painting is the name given by critic and curator Marcia Tucker to a trend in American figurative painting in the 1970s. Tucker curated an exhibition of the same name at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, featuring the work of fourteen artists mostly unknown in New York at the time. The exhibition ran from January 14 to February 28, 1978.

Tucker defined "Bad" Painting^[1] as a focused or deliberate disrespect for recent styles of painting, not the more common sense of technical incompetence, poor artistic judgement, or amateur or outsider dabbling. The press release for the exhibition^[2] summarized "Bad" Painting as "an ironic title for 'good painting', which is characterized by deformation of the figure, a mixture of art-historical and non-art resources, and fantastic and irreverent content. In its disregard for accurate representation and its rejection of conventional attitudes about art, 'bad' painting is at once funny and moving, and often scandalous in its scorn for the standards of good taste." "Bad," as Tucker's use of scare quotes suggests, is thus a term of approval for eccentric and amusing deviations from accepted styles at the time.

Well known popular artist of that period include:

– Jean-Michel Basquiat

– Neil Jenney

– Kenney Scharf

– Julian Schnabel

– Malcolm Morley

– David Salle

– Jonathan Borofsky

– Donald Sultan

Artists included in the exhibition were James Albertson (1944–2015), Joan Brown (1938–1990), Eduardo Carrillo (1937–1997), James Chatelain (b. 1947), Cply (alias William Copley) (1919–1996), Charles Garabedian (1923–2016), Cham Hendon (1936–2014), Joseph Hilton (b. 1946), Neil Jenney (b. 1945), Judith Linhares (b. 1940), P. Walter Siler (b. 1939), Earl Staley (b. 1938), Shari Urquhart (b. 1938), and William Wegman (b. 1943).

The hype from their bad taste element drew inspiration from popular culture, the adaption of interesting materials used, excessive thick layers, and clashing colors.

Michel Basquiat, "Black Policman"

Neil Jenney, "Man and Challenge"

Malcom Morely, "Onsett"

Davis Selle, "One"

Joan Brown, "Self Portrait"

Judith Linhares, "Founding"