Great review/essay by Mr. Saltz. Quote, But what is truly missing here is the sense of painterly anxiety. Not enough of The Forever Now lets us in on the storms gathering in the medium, where there is an epic struggle going on, not in spite of the disappearance of modernism’s teleology but precisely because painters working today have had that universe of possibilities collapse on them. On the one hand, artists are ultra-aware of and therefore in an ironical position to paintings processes, endless tropes, styles, ideas, and, therefore, their own work. Perhaps its been ever thus, but its more thus than ever. An artist using Day-Glo color today is also using Warhol; every brushstroke references a hundred other artists; painting on fabric might be Polke, Kippenberger, Salle, Oehlen. And so on — not absolutely, not every time, not intentionally, even, but its there. History and style are now extra-active content. If that were that, we’d be dealing only with self-conscious work. The complication is that while artists are in this ironical position to painting, to them their work is not ironic at all — in fact, it is completely, utterly sincere. Today, artists have an almost Romantic relationship to their own work — even if it is made in a time when they are as self-aware as almost never before.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 13:47:44 +0000
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