The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World

(Hardback)

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Timeless Painting presents the work of 17 contemporary painters whose works reflect a singular approach that is peculiarly of our time: they are a-temporal, a term coined by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, the originators of the cyberpunk aesthetic. A-temporality or timelessness manifests itself in painting as an ahistoric free-for-all, where contemporaneity as an indicator of new form is nowhere to be found, and all eras co-exist. Published to accompany an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art that explores the impact of this cultural condition on contemporary painting, this publication features work by an international roster of artists including Joe Bradley, Kerstin Brtsch, Matt Connors, Nicole Eisenman, Mark Grotjahn, Charline von Heyl, , Julie Mehretu, Oscar Murillo, Laura Owens and Josh Smith, among others. An overview essay by curator Laura Hoptman is divided into thematic chapters that explore topics such as re-animation and reenactment, recontextualization, 'Zombie' painting, and the concomitant 'Frankenstein approach', which describes a process of stitching together pieces of the history of painting to create a work of art that would be dead but for its juxtaposed parts, all working in association with one another to propel the work into life.

Reviews

...when artists, critics, and curators want to take the pulse of contemporary art, painting inspires much of the deepest, most heartfelt, and heated discussion.--Jed Perl "The New York Review of Books"
Seventeen artists are examined in this catalogue for a MoMA exhibition, arguing, somewhat paradoxically, that atemporality or timelessness is the defining characateristic of our current world. Work from painters like Matt Connors, Amy Sillman and Mary Weatherford reflects the tendency today to mix up historical styles and techniques on the canvas.-- "Art in America"

Author Bio

Laura Hoptman is Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.