The 'death of painting' and its subsequent resurrection in transformed conditions is an oft-rehearsed leitmotif of the modernist era, yet from the post-conceptual painting revival of the early 1980s to the present new perspectives have emerged that reopen the entire field, not only globally but historically beyond the past century. The diversity of meanings and practices signified by painting today can encompass the eclecticism associated with net-surfing and the philosophical naming as 'painting' of artworks that manifest no trace of paint. This is the first anthology to bring together key statements, dialogues and debates by artists and writers on art that have been building blocks of the latest era in painting's history. Predominantly first published in magazines, journals and catalogues, these texts re-contextualize polarized debates and reignite questions for the future. Tracing the story from the 'neo' revivals onward, this collection also ranges widely across ideas and practices of the preceding decades as they have been re-evaluated by artists and theorists in the frame of contemporary ideas.

Artists surveyed include Glenn Brown, Vija Celmins, John Currin, Marlene Dumas, Olafur Eliasson, Bernard Frize, Katharina Grosse, Andreas Gursky, Peter Halley, Gary Hume, Jutta Koether, Paul McCarthy, Suzanne McCleland, Beatriz Milhazes, Takashi Murakami, Albert Oehlen, Lari Pittman, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Robert Ryman, David Salle, Cheri Samba, Jim Shaw, Jessica Stockholder, Philip Taaffe, Luc Tuymans, Jeff Wall and Sue Williams.

Writers include Daniel Birnbaum, Norman Bryson, Douglas Crimp, Gilles Deleuze, Sebastian Egenhofer, Hal Foster, Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe, Isabelle Graw, David Joselit, Shirley Kaneda, Geeta Kapur, Thomas Lawson, Midori Matsui, Lane Relyea, Rene Ricard, Jerry Saltz, Mira Schor, Barry Schwabsky and Adrian Searle.