The Field of Painting

The Field of Painting
Symposium, MUMOK Auditorium

Date: Nov 12. - Nov 13
Venue: MUMOK
Concept: Achim Hochdörfer and Wolfram Pichler

After established art critique had proclaimed for decades that painting was dead or merely a cynical parody, recently new interest in the widely ramified and often contradictory history of this once most influential medium seems to have been sparked. However, what narrative and theoretical models are to be applied when speaking about painting remains unclear.

Can models such as Bois\' concept of mourning or Buchloh\'s idea of painting delaying its own end still be deemed viable? Or must we assume an \"expanded field\" of artistic production, in which no medium can be seen separately from the other because each one has inscribed itself into the histories of other media? To answer these and further questions it is key to keep in mind the predominantly difficult relationship between avant-gardes or neo-avant-gardes and painting and, if necessary, to re-interpret this relationship.

It should also be noted that today more and more artists feel drawn to the medium of painting (or what has become of it). This remarkable artistic trend gives us cause to once again re-think (the history) of painting.

Participants
Sebastian Eggenhofer, Professor University of Basel
Mark Godfrey, Curator Tate Modern, London
Isabelle Graw, Editor Texte zur Kunst
David Joselit, Professor Yale University
Ruth Sonderegger, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna
Gregor Stemmrich, Professor Humboldt University Berlin
Ann Temkin, Chief Curator Painting and Sculpture Department, MOMA New York
Ralph Ubl, Professor University of Chicago
Jeff Wall, Artist and Art historian, Vancouver

(c) VBK Wien