PAINTING—“LOSING CURRENCY AS A WAY OF RESPONDING TO THE WORLD”. I posted here about the possible death of painting, based on comments by reviewers (“the collapse of painting as art’s preeminent form”). Jackie Wullschlager in the Financial Times (November 16-17) reviewed an exhibit at the Tate Modern about “Painting Now: Five Contemporary Artists” and says that, according to that show, painting “has become ‘a medium under the condition of its own de-specification'”. She adds: “Tate says, ‘the activity of painting can be understood as a process of resistance’…they acknowledge a cultural climate where painting is losing currency as a way of responding to the world.” Annalisa has noted with frustration the number of times when people have used the words “representation” and “illustration” to her as terms of contempt and dismissal. Jackie Wullschlager quotes the Tate’s reference to “the very obscenity of representation itself in its materiality”.
I showed this post to Annalisa, who suggested I mention the phrase “illusionistic picture plane”—also said with contempt and dismissal.