No More Painting

No More Painting

No More Painting: a reading group, Wednesday 3 June, 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 seventh session, taking place on Wednesday 3rd June, 18:30-20:30, we will be reading ‘Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror’ by the American poet and art critic John Ashbery. A winding digression on a 16th-century painting of the same name by the Renaissance artist Parmigianino, ‘Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror’ is a long poem that combines patches of art historical texts with Ashbery’s signature dream-like style. It recounts the poet’s various encounters with the painting and muses on the nature of representation across time.

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: Noodles Home, Edinburgh