Painting: an arcane technology

Is painting a critique of a disembodied, fractured view of the world? Is painting a symptom of a nostalgic, even regressive approach that yearns for painting as an ‘act’ or ‘pure presence”? Or is the fascination with painting only related to notions of ‘uniqueness’ and ‘authenticity’ registered by Henri Focillon in the 1940s in his essay ‘In praise of hands’: Is it not admirable to find living among us in the machine age this determined survivor of the ‘hand age’? In our contemporary society we especially question how authenticity is formed; how we might be authentic and who can be an author, At least as many questions could be raised by the works in Painting: an arcane technology.