Skip navigation

Main menu

  • What's on
  • Art & Artists
    • The Collection
      Artists
      Artworks
      Art by theme
      Media
      Videos
      Podcasts
      Short articles
      Learning
      Schools
      Art Terms
      Tate Research
      Art Making
      Create like an artist
      Kids art activities
      Tate Draw game
  • Visit
  • Shop
Become a Member
  • DISCOVER ART
  • ARTISTS A-Z
  • ARTWORK SEARCH
  • ART BY THEME
  • VIDEOS
  • ART TERMS
  • SCHOOLS
  • TATE KIDS
  • RESEARCH
  • Tate Britain
    Tate Britain Free admission
  • Tate Modern
    Tate Modern Free admission
  • Tate Liverpool + RIBA North
    Tate Liverpool + RIBA North Free admission
  • Tate St Ives
    Tate St Ives Ticket or membership card required
  • FAMILIES
  • ACCESSIBILITY
  • SCHOOLS
  • PRIVATE TOURS
Tate Logo
Become a Member
This is a past display. Go to current displays

Pinot Gallizio, Industrial Painting 1958. Tate. © Estate of Pinot Gallzio, courtesy of Galleria Martano.

Expanded Painting

In the decades following the Second World War, find out how artists explored a number of radical approaches to painting

In Italy in the late 1950s, Pinot Gallizio produced ‘Industrial Paintings’ on long rolls of canvas, questioning the idea of the painting as a unique object by using the technique of the production line. Other artists enlivened the process of painting with acts of symbolic violence. French artist Niki de Saint Phalle produced works by shooting at a canvas embedded with paint-filled balloons. Though such works were abstract and even playful, they seemed to reflect the memory and ongoing experience of war.

By the 1970s, artists were focusing on the physical structure of the painting. Sam Gilliam abandoned the wooden stretcher and draped his canvas over a hook, knowing that it would never fall in exactly the same way from one installation to the next. Richard Smith created a grid of aluminium poles that he used as the support for a green canvas sewn with various diagonal tapes. At first glance, the white canvas of Michael Buthe’s painting appears to have ripped to pieces, an impression carefully created by the artist who has painstakingly hung, tied and stitched it to the white-painted frame.

Curated by Mark Godfrey

The Doris & Donald Fisher Gallery

Read more

Tate Modern

Getting Here

Free

Find out more

Art Fund Museum of the Year 2017

Artwork
Close

Join in

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
Sign up to emails

Sign up to emails

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Tate’s privacy policy

About

  • About us
  • Our collection
  • Terms and copyright
  • Governance
  • Picture library
  • ARTIST ROOMS
  • Tate Kids

Support

  • Tate Collective
  • Members
  • Patrons
  • Donate
  • Corporate
  • My account
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Contact
© The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery, 2025
All rights reserved