Untitled I, 1993

Matt Mullican is an American artist from California. Mullican is one of many artists labeled as part of the Pictures Generation (1974 to 1984); thought to be the first generation saturated with the imagery of media symbols. He is best known for his practice of creating art while under hypnosis, and often for an audience. Matt Mullican has been pursuing this mode of creation since he started working with hypnosis in the 1970s. His own arsenal of pictographs, along with numbers, signs, symbols, letters, and free form automatic drawings comprise his visual vocabulary. He often works on bed sheets, large papers or even walls using black acrylic ink to draw or paint. Many who attend Matt Mullican's events discover that he has an inner self who he refers to as “that person”, who paints and writes spontaneously. Two representative works in Matt Mullican's style include: Untitled (Learning from that person’s work: city, red), 2009 and Untitled (Set of Four Signs), 1980. Matt Mullican, who earned a BFA degree from CalArts, has been a teacher and lecturer at The School of Visual Arts and Columbia University, New York; Chelsea College of Art and Design and The London Institute, England; and The Rijksakademie, Amsterdam.