Since the 20th century, it was often announced that a painting was dead, but it is still alive. Even in the epoch of recently increasing virtuality, painting is still appealing, consistently pursed by many with a thirst. Thus, it is said that the mission of a picture is to maintain its reality without being trapped in virtuality. In the history of Western painting spanning over several hundreds of years the myriad of techniques and styles have emerged, going though a huge variety of changes: namely, its not possible any longer to find the new ways of expression in painting. Hence, painters today feel that it becomes more gradually difficult for them to execute something. In the midst of swiftly changing, diversely evolving trends of contemporary art, the painters incessantly pose a question why they go on working on painting, and seek to find its answer. Why the painters still try to say something about painting? Is that because they consider it the quintessence of fine arts or think that it is in no way possible or meaningful to comment on fine arts without relying on painting? If then, is there any avenue of escape for the painting? The question of the ‘crisis of painting’ is still raised, when reviewing the rapidly changing conditions of inventing artworks. That is also why the recent works failed to offer a conceptually unified, universally shared perspective of painting. Moreover, painting is left to shrink comparatively with the pervasive existence of videos and installations briskly employing digital images and technologies in their creations. Whats more problematic is the fact that there is a growing sense of crisis not only in the sphere of painting but also in the entire realm of art. As the organizers and curators of big-scale exhibitions and art projects tend to exploit their space spectacularly, focusing primarily on their abilities to control the space, there is a pervasive notion amongst them that painting is a medium that is not properly to suit such purposes and requests. Today, the death of painting is, in fact, the death of modernist painting, which assumed a central role in the history of art for a considerable amount of time, rather than the death of painting itself. Employing a new paradigm of invention, a picture is now entering a new domain which is perhaps unknown to us. Moving beyond the stereotypical concepts of painting, physical property and flatness, pictures today reveal the introduction of time and space and the penetration of new media such as installation, photography, video and the Internet. Despite such trends, the dexterity and tactile capability of painters is still to be considered significant in the future. The renewal of painting is made in an entirely unexpected manner and place.

1. 들어가는 말 
2. 회화의 위기 
  모더니즘과 회화의 위기 
  뒤샹과 회화의 위기 
  후기모더니즘과 회화의 위기 
3. 한국에서의 회화의 위기 논의 
4. 이곳에서의 회화 
부록. 최근 국내에서 열린 회화 관련 주요 기획전시 사례와 기획의 글 및 참여작가 명단 
참고문헌 
Abstract

• 박영택(경기대학교 교수) | Young-taik Bhak