Ask anybody what they think artists do and most people would say "paint." Painting is the most common and ubiquitous form of art making, yet group exhibitions of living painters at any major museum or gallery are quite rare. The Museum of Modern Art in New York currently has a group painting exhibition called
The Forever Now and the last time MOMA had a group show of living artists who paint was in 1958.
While painting is perceived as being very popular, it has become somewhat marginalized in the contemporary art world. It has often been pushed aside for the more edgy art forms such as video, installation, performance and social practice; this is especially apparent in many of the huge international exhibitions such as the
Venice Biennale or
Documenta. I know many good painters who are challenged to find contemporary venues in which to show their work. Sure, it might seem like there are a lot of galleries that exhibit paintings, but not so many when it comes to contemporary paintings that focus on ideas as much as form.
So why paint when the opportunities for exhibitions or sales are somewhat remote? One of the lures of painting is that it can be used to address history as it is deeply embedded in a historical tradition. At the same time, painting can also comment on contemporary culture. This possible duality can be seen the image above by Neil McClelland which addresses the historical by referencing Cezanne's painting "The Bather" and Matisse's colour and compositional choices, while also responding to the contemporary by using an image found on Instagram under
#beachday. The work combines a sense of the sublime, figure looking out at nature, with a kind of "anti-sublime" suggested by the contemporary hand gestures. Nell's painting offers a way of understanding art history and the culture of today.
Another attraction of painting, perhaps the main reason people keep returning to despite its many ends and deaths, is that it is a very physical medium in which the viewer can see a record of the artist's activity in the mark of the paint. I think, like printed books, paintings will always be favoured by many artists and audiences because they provides a direct connection to the physical.
The Forever Now exhibition has incited more articles and reviews than any show in recent memory so painting is obviously of interest to many. One article I recommend about the exhibition is from the
New Yorker but Google the title of the show and you will find many more (almost every art magazine and newspaper with an art section has published a piece on it). The exhibition has received both positive and negative reviews, but particularly noteworthy is the
amount of discussion generated. In addition to the catalog for
Forever Now there are several recent compendia on contemporary paintings including
100 Painters of Tomorrow,
Painting Today (now available in paperback), and of course the indispensable
Vitamin P and
Vitamin P2. The Saatchi Gallery's website also has some excellent articles under the title of
The Triumph of Painting. Perhaps all this activity surrounding painting reveals that it is time for painting to return to the forefront.
I am pleased to say that we have a group exhibition of local painters opening TONIGHT at Open Space (510 Fort St) called
Realities Follies that Lynda Gammon and I co-curated. Do check it out if you can -it will open your eyes to the possibilities of what painting can be and do.
