Death of Painting .. ?

Did painting die? The real physical art of painting a picture, is that dead? The purpose of art today is rarely a matter of solely achieving aesthetic visual pleasure. Not often do we see contemporary artists whose main aim in their work is to create beauty and nothing more. Art also makes us think, and what we as the viewer expect to get in the balance between what ideas an artwork stirs in our minds, and what it makes us feel based on its aesthetic qualities changes through time. When we look at Durer’s water colour ‘Young Hare, 1502’ we admire the precision with which he has drawn each strand of fur, and the beauty within the realism. He is making a statement about the world and how we see it, his vision and technical brilliance persuades us to feel a connection. Yet when we look at fairly recent painting it is these things that are often not given. In the painting ‘Durer’s Hare 1968’ by German artist Sigmar Polke, we see Durer’s Hare copied and placed against expressive white brush marks which are painted on mass produced fabric. Polke is using an image and autograph from the greatest of German artists, marks reminiscent of abstract expressionism and a surface from consumer culture. These different elements show the options of subject to a painter of that time. Pop, abstraction or the return to the great tradition of figurative painting. I believe there is a necessity to make and see paintings that extends from the past to the future, that there is as much necessity in Polke as in Durer. Through this essay I will view the opinions expressed in several essays that investigate this essay title and express my opinion in relation. I want to disentangle different possible interpretations of the claim and state my defence of painting.