No More Painting

No More Painting

No More Painting: a reading group, Wednesday 1 April, 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 fifth session, taking place on Wednesday 1st April, 18:30-20:30, we will be looking at two texts: the opening to Ben Lerner’s novel ‘Leaving the Atocha Station’ (2011) and Andrea Fraser’s talk ‘Why Does Fred Sandback’s Work Make Me Cry?’ (2004). Disconcerted by a man’s unrestrained response to a number of paintings in Madrid’s Museo del Prado, the narrator of Lerner’s book begins to question his capacity for profound experiences of culture. Fraser’s text, while nominally concerned with minimalist sculptor Fred Sandbank, questions why some artworks might make one weep, and recounts her own experiences in front of works by Rembrandt and Barnett Newman. We’ll look at the way paintings as objects play key roles in both of these texts.

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: detail from a portrait of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, shown holding the plans for the Glasgow School of Art, by Francis Henry Newbury, 1914, National Galleries of Scotland.