Today, our 13 questions are answered by artist Madeleine Strindberg, Madeleine paints with a freedom I really envy, I adore the commitment in her marks, her ability to place the paint in just the right place and in such a deliciously economic manner. hers is such wonderfully knowingly uncluttered way, not a less is more thing, it isn’t about that, it is more about somehow knowing how to load the brush with just the right amount of paint and instinctively knowing just exactly where that paint has to go, that way she has in terms of saying so much in such a precise, in such a bold way. Madeleine Strindberg is one of of my favourite painters, she has been for a dozen or so years now since she first took part in a Cultivate group show during the very early days of our time spent in Vyner Street, she has taken part in many of our shows, twenty or more? I’ve lost count, she always seems so fresh, never predictable, it always very much obviously her work, you don’t need to be told, is is instantly recognisable, we never quite know what we are going to get though. Madeleine Strindberg is one of my favourite painters and has been for quite some time now.

Madeleine Strindberg (born 1955) is a German-born painter, a long time London-based artist, winner of the 1998 Jerwood Painting Prize, she graduated from the Byam Shaw School of Art and Royal College of Art in 1985 with a master’s degree in painting. Winner of various awards, she was the Artist in Residence at the National Gallery in 1989, that same year she also won the GLC Peace Prize and In 1996, she was awarded the Abbey Award in Painting by the British School at Rome. Madeleine was one of the artists shortlisted for the John Moore’s Painting Prize in 1997, In 2000 she was once again on the shortlist for the Charles Wollaston Award. “Preferring to be called an artist as opposed to a painter, Strindberg has worked with various media, three-dimensional objects, photography and video, as well as the written word to convey her subject matter”. It is painting we know her for and painting that has dominated her work in more recent years, it was always her most frequent medium and whether it be on canvas on newspapers (that have maybe annoyed her or are reporting something that has annoyed her), it is always rather relevant, always rather exciting.

I almost don’t want to ask Madeleine these thirteen questions (twelve generic questions and thirteenth specific one), I almost don’t want to know her way of working or her current thought process, I almost just want her painting to do all the talking, her art does rather say everything and she is as prolific and exciting as ever

1: WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO? 

Artist, painter.

2: WHERE ARE YOU TODAY?  WHERE ARE YOU MOST DAYS?    

At home, I work from  home, mostly outside when it doesn’t rain.

3: WHO OR WHAT IS EXCITING YOU RIGHT NOW?

A dress I found in a charity sale yesterday

4: WHY DO YOU MAKE ART? 

It seems the only thing I am any good at.

5: HOW DO YOU WORK? 

Fairly quickly mostly outside on the floor, when it doesn’t rain.

6: TELL US ABOUT THE ART YOU MOST IDENTIFY WITH?

Probably Joseph Beuys, Eva Hesse, this goes a long way back Boltanski, Philida Barlow, Julien Schnabel. Actually I have always been drawn to 3-d artists, but I think I am more influenced by things that happen in the world, like the war in Ukraine or the appalling recent events in Palestine.

7: WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT YOUR OWN WORK? 

I like it when it works and this can happen very quickly.

8: WHAT DO YOU DISLIKE ABOUT YOUR OWN WORK?

When I am fiddling around and miss the point.

9:  WHAT HAS BEEN THE HAPPIEST MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE SO FAR?

No idea

10: WHAT MAKES YOU ANGRY?

When I am trying very hard to do things but simply can’t do them. Right wing politics and global expansion of Russia.

11: WHICH SUPERPOWER WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO HAVE AND WHY?

To be in two places at the same time. 

12: WHAT COULDN’T YOU DO WITHOUT?   

Vision in my right eye – if this goes, well I don’t think I couldn’t carry on.

13:  WHAT IS IT ABOUT RED DRESSES ANYWAY?

Very important!

And finally any future shows or events coming up that you wish us to tell people?

I have a summer residence at the BSR British School of Rome for the month of August.

Madeleine is currently part of Cultivate’s latest online group show Mixtape No.7, she also took part in one of Cultivate’s Three x Three shows back in 2022, Three x Three (Part Six), featured Liz Griffiths, Madeleine Strindberg and Lisa Denyer. it really is time we saw a decent body of her current work all in one physical space, these paintings have so much to offer when you get to see them in the flesh, when you get to stand in a space with them and let them talk to you, when you give yourself the time, Madeleine Strindberg is a very rewarding artist, an exciting inspiring painter that the (increasingly ageist) gatekeepers of the London art scene really should allow in far more than they have done in this century.     

Madeleine can be found on Instagram or via her own website

And here’s a selection of some of the work shown at Cultivate shows over the last 12 years. As always do please click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slace show…