No More Painting

No More Painting

No More Painting: a reading group, Wednesday 4 March, 18:30-20:30, in-person.

No More Painting is a reading group focusing on debates in contemporary painting and the discourses that have probed and problematised the medium over the last 50 years. The selected texts will investigate painting’s place within the political and economic spheres, as well as the role that painting has historically played in the construction and policing of national identity. No background knowledge in the history or theory of painting is required. It would be particularly valuable to hear from practicing painters as well as those interested in looking at and talking about painting. These sessions take place in-person at EMBASSY Gallery, 7 Ferry Road, EH6 4AD.

In the fourth session, taking place on Wednesday 4th March, 18:30-20:30, we will be reading Isabelle Graw’s ‘The Value of Liveliness: Painting as an Index of Agency in the New Economy’ (2016). In this essay, Graw speculates around the specific indexicality of painting, asking how present a painter can be in their work and how this ‘presence’ relates to concepts of value.

If you are interested in joining, please send a quick email to embassygalleryedinburgh@gmail.com with the subject ‘No More Painting’.

The name of the reading group is borrowed from Duchamp’s injunction to himself in 1913, the year he completed his first readymades: ‘Marcel, no more painting; go get a job’.

Image: deinstall after a painting show, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh.