Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting

Description

With a concept similar to "cream", this text is an image-heavy book offering an overview of the state of painting today, and documents the most recent concerns and ideas among contemporary painters. In the wake of media such as installation, video, performance and digital art, the traditional medium of painting has enjoyed a renaissance among a recent generation of artists. Alongside the ever-growing reputation of significant living painters such as Gerhard Richter, Agnes Martin and Peter Halley, many younger artists have chosen painting over any other medium, and are exploring new means to broaden the traditional field of "oil on canvas". It is this younger generation (who emerged in the 1990s) that "Vitamin P" aims to represent in an A-Z survey of 114 of its leading, international practitioners, with each artist illustrated by numerous examples of his or her works, accompanied by a short explanatory text. Often moving beyond the most traditional image associated with this medium, This survey hopes to illustrate the richness, eclecticism, dynamism and contemporaneity of the practice of painting today.

Barry Schwabsky is a regular editor and contributor to Artforum magazine, and has worked as an editor and contributor to various other contemporary art magazines for many years. In his writing and criticism, painting is often privileged over other art mediums and young painters do often attract his attention. He contributed to Phaidon's Jessica Stockholder in the Contemporary Artists series in 1995. He has taught at the Yale School of Art and at New York University among other institutions. He recently moved from New York to London, where he is Visiting Lecturer at the Goldsmiths College. About 30 international authors have written the entries on the 114 artists. Critics, curators, journalists, these authors have been chosen for their knowledge of contemporary art and painting.

"An obligatory purchase for anyone who buys modern art."-The Independent "The most lavish, comprehensive and useful guide to the new painting."-Art Monthly "Forget C, D and E - P is the only supplement you'll ever need."-Art Review "The most recent proof that painting, a supposedly moribund art form, is not dead after all comes in the form of a handsome, dazzlingly produced art book."-Vogue "While the art establishment, between bouts of kicking the dead corpse of painting, can only occasionally be shocked into sitting up and paying attention, thousands of artists all over the world are voting with their brushes. To celebrate, comes Vitamin P, a lavish, affordable and truly international overview of 114 artists nominated by critics and curators... This is one vitamin that is incontrovertibly of benefit to everyone and just the pep pill these artists deserve."-i-D "[Vitamin P] provides unusual depth for a survey of this scope... Barry Schwabsky's perceptive introductory essay provides an excellent map of how we got here...Flash Art