THE IMAGE REGAINED - LÌMMAGINE RITROVATA / Painting and Photography from the Eighties to Today

THE IMAGE REGAINED

People once boldly predicted that photography would displace painting altogether. Others argued that a photograph could never be art. As it turned out, both forms of expression have had a stimulating effect on each other during their long years of co- existence. With works by outstanding artists and photographers, this book illustrates the intensity and the consequences of this exchange over the past twenty years. More frequently than not, the encounter rocked the very understanding of the image. Whereas painting, under the influence of photography, is now finding its way back to the subject from its abstract and informal phase, photography in the eighties reclaimed for itself traditional painterly themes such as portraits and landscapes. Border crossings, irritations and the breaking with conventional modes of perception have become programmatic. Paintings, for instance, now explore the properties of photography - the effects of light and shadow as well as blurred outlines simulating different foci - and exist next to photographs which suggest a painterly mode of creation. As varied as the artistic directions documented in this book may be, there is one thing their creators have in common: they endeavor to take a long look at our world and make the viewer stop and think.