INTRODUCTION

"Y2K has come and gone and those curious letters have passed into oblivion. A technologically sophisticated world managed to contain its surprisingly medieval fear of dates and technology and has moved on. But to where?.....where is art history headed in the first decade of the twenty-first century?" Preface to the updated second edition of 'Critical Terms for Art History' (The University of Chicago Press, 2003.)
Through a series of interviews with contemporary painters, accompanied by images provided by the artists themselves, this blog will probe at where painting is headed at the beginning of the second decade. 'The medieval' and 'the technological' are also, perhaps, two good terms for framing Painting's continued ability to grasp at the past and face forward to new things, at one and the same time. The interviews are intended to reveal where each painter positions her/ himself in relation to these (and other) ideas.