
Painting is certainly not dead, though one sees so little in twentieth century art that is very inspiring or innovative. However, this long century of "isms" against which Bonnard, Matisse and Picasso stand out as beacons may well be the fallow century that preceeds the next great reawakening of pictorial sensibility. The idea artists have had there day. Mimimalism is a design trend as available in Walmart as in Chelsea. The decadent art has spun out its last, and a revitalization of imagery and life is in the making. All this takes place behind the scenes. In this era when more people are painting than ever before (don't take my word for it, ask Misters Winsor and Newton), artists of innately visual sensibility are finding their way. They are doing as artists have always done. They are following their own hearts, discovering their own paths. They are looking at the art of the past and finding new touchstones for ideas. They are not copying the past. They are transforming it. They are finding the eternal idea and letting it breathe the air of the present tense. Real painting is about life, and life is always waiting to be explored. Modern Painters is about finding this first evidence of the new path that painting takes in the new century.