A few weeks ago, I mentioned a good article in The New Republic about the state of contemporary art (or its current lack thereof). The writer reviewed the book Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting and it really is something at which to marvel. I don’t think I’ve seen a book that has excited me about painting like this one has in the past few years. Just when I thought it was pretty much over, there still seems to be a few (but perhaps just a few) things to take care of on a painted surface that are surprising, intelligent, and arresting. Many of the more interesting paintings in the book look to formal aesthetic innovations mixed with juxtapositions of content taken from a number of sources. I mean, it sounds like folks like Manuel Ocampo, who is an awfully good painter, have taken the lead in defining how the world can look through the painted lens. Lots of the work seem to have a spiritual bent and much of the paintings look beaten, ragged, or raw. This is a good thing.
Many of the artists featured in the book are the usual suspects – Y(oung) B(ritish) A(rtist)’s like Gary Hume, who I like – but there are many, many here that I do not know and that deserve the attention that this book seems to lavish. Sure would like this one . . .