Petroleum and Painting: Reading Oil in Post-War and Neoliberal ‘Expression’

Can we ‘read’ petroleum, oil, and petro-culture in post-war expressive and figurative painting? Art theorist Carina Brand considers the significant material impacts and aesthetics of petroleum, as crude oil that is black, viscous, and toxic, and refined oil that becomes social and cultural in its association with ‘freedom’ and plastic commodity culture.

Presented at the University of Edinburgh, History of Art Talks, 27 June 2024