Sprayed: Works from 1929 to 2015, Gagosian

As medium-specific exhibitions go, this show at the Gagosian gallery promises to be one of the more thrilling. Sprayed spotlights four generations of established names that have used spray paint in their art, including the notorious Jean-Michel Basquiat (who left charming notes sprayed onto the walls of NYC), Richard Hamilton, Paul Klee, Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha (known for his poetic staining) and King of Pop Art, Andy Warhol. The chronology begins in 1929 with Klee’s Seltsames Theatre, when the young Swiss-German artist sprayed paint through a blowpipe to create a haze over his circus scene. The Gagosian exhibition ends with more recent works by some exciting fresh faces. Look out for Katharina Grosse, who is making a splash at the Venice Biennale 2015 for her very of-the-moment environments made ‘radioactive’ with jazzy colour.
Sprayed looks at the broad use of spraying by modern artists which breaks down what we think of as ‘painterly’, ‘abstract’ or ‘spontaneous’. You'll find that the work is often on the edge of falling into ‘graffiti’, making this contemporary art exhibition in London a lot of fun.