Painting at the edge of the world

"Is painting a mode of thought? Is there a philosophy of painting that extends beyond the confines of the medium? Where does the edge of the canvas end and the edge of the world begin? Painting at the Edge of the World brings together thirty artists and some of the most provocative critical thinkers today, each of whom poses a new set of questions about the irrepressible power and relevance of contemporary painting." "No longer solely bound by such traditional categories as figuration, abstraction, portraiture, and landscape, or even by the conventional definition of the medium as paint on canvas, many artists today demonstrate that a philosophy of painting is to be found not only in these genres, but also in photographic, conceptual, performative, popular culture, and architectural manifestations. This collection of essays provides a wide-ranging reconsideration of the status of painting in the current global situation: its Lazarus-like persistence in the face of its perpetual "deaths"; the dispersion of an art-historical center and the assertion of cultural difference; the relationship between painting and its "support"; the crisis of legitimacy it shares with rock music; the pra