Painting Now

An international survey exploring the many ways in which painting has been re-approached, re-imagined, and challenged by today’s artists

Painting is a continually expanding and evolving medium. The radical changes that have taken place since the 1960s and 1970s―the period that saw the shift from a modernist to a postmodernist visual language―have led to its reinvigoration as a practice, lending it an energy and diversity that persists today.

In Painting Now, renowned critic and art historian Suzanne Hudson offers an intelligent and original survey of contemporary painting―a critical snapshot that brings together more than 200 artists from around the world whose work is defining the ideas and aesthetics that characterize the painting of our time. Hudson’s rigorous inquiry takes shape through the analysis of a range of internationally renowned painters, alongside reproductions of their key works to illustrate the concepts being discussed. These luminaries include Franz Ackermann, Michaël Borremans, Chuck Close, Angela de la Cruz, Subodh Gupta, Julie Mehretu, Vik Muniz, Takashi Murakami, Elizabeth Peyton, Wilhelm Sasnal, Luc Tuymans, Zhang Xiaogang, and many others.

Organized into six thematic chapters exploring aspects of contemporary painting such as appropriation, attitude, production and distribution, the body, painting about painting, and introducing additional media into painting, this is an essential volume for art history enthusiasts, critics, and practitioners. 230 illustrations, 224 in color