Image: Dana Schutz at work on 'Catcher', 2026, charcoal on paper, 274.3 x 548.6 cm. Courtesy the artist, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin-Basel, and David Zwirner. Photo: Kerry McFate. Exhibited in 'Trouble and Appearance', Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
American artist Dana Schutz (b. 1976, based in New York) is making her Munich debut with 'Trouble and Appearance', an exhibition organised by the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München and shown in the Pinakothek der Moderne from 10 July to 4 October 2026. The collection's exhibition page and the museum's own listing both give these dates.
For the show Schutz places her drawings at the centre of her work for the first time. The Staatliche Graphische Sammlung states that no previous exhibition has presented her sketches, studies and preparatory drawings in such concentration. Her large-format works on paper, drawn in charcoal alone, recall the murals of the American avant-gardes, above all those of the Abstract Expressionists of the New York School. In Munich her drawn murals are presented as a world premiere.
Alongside her painting, Schutz has consistently worked in printmaking, using different graphic techniques to test a motif across media, reconsider a solution and arrive at new compositions. Her recent large-format monotypes examine human and interpersonal states of being, with the painterly gesture at times dissolving the narrative into passages of abstract colour.
The organiser frames the project as a further instalment in its continuing enquiry into the status of drawing in the twenty-first century, and into its role as a form of expression for human intellect and invention.
Works on view include 'Catcher' (2026), charcoal on paper, 274.3 by 548.6 centimetres, courtesy the artist, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin-Basel, and David Zwirner, photographed by Kerry McFate; and 'Eaters' (2026), a watercolour monotype with additions in gouache and chalk on Lanaquarelle paper, 126.7 by 101 centimetres, courtesy the artist, Two Palms, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin-Basel, and David Zwirner, photographed by Stephen Arnold. The exhibition takes its title from an earlier print, 'Trouble and Appearance' (2018), an etching with aquatint, courtesy the artist and Two Palms, New York.
The Pinakothek der Moderne has also published an episode of its ONE ON ONE video series in which Schutz discusses the large charcoal drawing 'The Catcher' (2026), shown for the first time in the exhibition. The show was highlighted in the Kunstareal München newsletter 'pulse 107' of 21 August 2026, and runs until 4 October 2026.
