Painting has asserted itself once again at the beginning of the twenty-first century, as it has done so many times over the course of history, in the face of a real world that is becoming more difficult to grasp by the day. No other artistic medium is as old as painting, which is separate from the real world and has completely autonomous possibilities. Painting creates its own subjects, its own space, illusions, sensuality and emotions, all of which are very individual.

This book examines the process of painting as a field of study, and the picture that painting presents to us of the conflicting, irrevocable and complex relationship between man and the world. The authors’ texts in HEUTE. MALEREI (Today. Painting) present international points of view, not for the purposes of comparison, but to illustrate their individual particularities. However, even painting is subject to the challenges and crises of the media and commerce. A series of examples shows what role painting can play in the current era dominated by media images, but also what advantages painting gains as a result of the new media.

With numerous artists’ texts and interviews, and texts by Susanne Figner, Uwe Gellner, Martin Hentschel, Harald Kunde, Annegret Laabs, Jan Thorn-Prikker, and Julie Rodrigues Widholm.