The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World. The Museum Of Modern Art.

If painting as some say is not dead, then judging by the new international painting survey at the Moma which I saw yesterday at a member’s preview it is surely not feeling so well and is resting in the intensive care unit at a small hospital in some suburban berg. The exhibition which is stupidly placed across from the magnificent Matisse show has a title that sounds like it belongs on a movie marquee at the neighborhood cinema complex: “The Forever Now” starring Shailene Woodley or Emma Roberts or some other  fabulous new flavor of the month teenage heart throb. The show features painters mostly born in the 60’s and 70’s with one born as recently as 1986 so one cannot say that this is a show of promising young painters who will do great work in the future. The future is now and I just wish the work was better and that I walked away feeling inspired and excited instead of bored and tired. Much of the paintings are mediocre, empty and hip and I kept thinking why is this painter included and not that other painter whose work is so much better. That’s the kind of show it is, but I’m not going to name names, no bashing the choices the curators made, but if you want a good laugh I recommend reading the curator’s press release.
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1498