Presence, Process, and the Pictorial Real

Painting proved to be an extremely robust and versatile medium of human self-reflection and is still relevant to contemporary image production.

Painting, according to recent findings, dates back more than seventy thousand years, and, across the millenia, it proved to be an extremely robust and versatile medium of human self-reflection. Today, painting is a medium almost exclusively confined to the artistic production of pictures. It has lost its dominant position in contemporary art and has finally become one artistic medium amongst others. Given the incredible number of pictures produced today, it seems to be reasonable and relevant to discuss whether and how painting is still pertinent to contemporary image production. This book will offer a variety of perspectives on the role of painting in the 21st century to address these questions.