ABSTRACT
W hy paint now? Why look at, respond to, paintings now?Why write about painting now? Why criticise paintings now? And why just painting (here)? Why not sculpture, land art, video, film? And why not poetry, fiction even? Why separate painting from the other arts, from art? We are no longer, apparently, shocked by 'the new' (well, only some of us and then only a little) so surely painting is no longer 'timely'? How could it be in a culture organised around the instant exchange of visual representations, images and information?
