This discussion focuses on artists in Europe and America who have been working with painting over the last two decades. A period of great technological shift, today we now negotiate a world in which advertising screens and glowing handheld devices are proliferate in both public and private spaces. Painters have not only appropriated new technologies and software as studio tools but also addressed how these media might make us appreciate the real layers of materials on a painting rather than a digital image.
In these conditions many artists are also interested in working either within or against the established traditions of abstraction. Abstract Expressionism was often associated with the heroic male painter, each gestural brush-stroke supposedly a trace of his emotions. But how might abstract painting be pursued when this narrative is distrusted, and the gesture, through the use of technology or otherwise, can be faked or non-assignable?
Join Hal Foster and Mark Godfrey for a conversation exploring ideas of abstraction, process and appropriation in painting today. This event takes place in Tate Modern’s new collection display featuring key examples of work by artists such as Christopher Wool, Amy Sillman, Charline von Heyl, and Albert Oehlen who have joined in this debate.
The conversation is introduced and chaired by Daniel Sturgis. Organised in partnership with Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London.