Painterly Perversions: Expansion as Translation

In this talk, artist and educator Magnus Quaife presents his thinking on painting as an act of translation. Recounting the recent explosion in the ‘expanded field’ of painting, Quaife argues that painting’s expansion has been enabled by a linguistic turn, frequently discussed and historicised in other fields but not within practices of painting. 

Discussing painting’s turn to the idea that one’s perception of the world is mediated by language, Quaife argues that the shift in painting from the formalist specifics of medium to painting as language has opened up the space to consider painting as a means of self-reflexive translation.

‘Painters Talking Painting’ is a series that emerged as an online forum to host talks and forge connections between interested art students and lecturers from several universities in the UK.

Each talk featured a painter teaching at an art school discussing their practice or a particular field of interest. 

The series was initiated by Sue Williams, Dougal McKenzie, Jenny Eden, Henry Ward and Ian Hartshorne.