After Modernist Painting: The History of a Contemporary Practice

Painting’s evolution since 1960 entailed having to continually redefine its own parameters through a negotiation with a broader set of practices, debates and artistic possibilities. Taking Clement Greenberg's “Modernist Painting” as its starting point, After Modernist Painting will be both a historical survey and a critical re-evaluation of the contested and contingent nature of the medium of painting over the last 60 years. Presenting a critical account of painting, rather than art generally, this book provides a timely exploration of what has remained a persistent and protean medium. Craig Staff focuses on certain developments including the relationship of painting to Conceptual Art and Minimalism, the pronouncement of painting’s alleged death, its response to Installation Art's foregrounding of site, how painting both images and imagines the digital and how it continues to body forth a particular set of ideas and responses to the world. After Modernist Painting is an invaluable resource for those seeking to understand the themes and issues that have pertained to painting within the context of postmodernism and contemporary artistic practice.