Alice Neel 1900-1984   Self Portrait  54"x40" oil on canvas 1980

Always unfashionable and always true to her self. One of Americas greatest portrait painters.  She painted the truth and was uncompromising to the end of her life.http:/www.davidzwirner.com

Jonathon Borofsky  Flowers at 2984208  48"x40" hand colored screen print 1986

http://www.borofsky.com

Jeff Colson  "Jumbo Cube" wood and paint  60"x60"x60" 2007-10
http://www.gf.org/fellows/17181-jeff-colson

Pasadena based Jeff Colson has been awarded a Guggenheim grant for 2012. His show last year at ACE in Beverly Hills was a stunning example of what an artist can accomplish when given time. Many of the works took years to complete.

Andrew Masullo "5173"  oil on canvas 30"x24" 2009-10

http://www.danielweinberggallery.com

Masullo is a non objective painter that works in the same vernacular  as Thomas Nozkowski, Jim Lee and others. His work opens doors and asks questions rather than setting up enigmatic conceptual theories. His intuitive approach is inventive and usually right on since he sometimes takes up to 10 years to complete a modest size painting.

Milton Resnick  (1917-2004)  "Untitled"  oil on canvas  1983
http://www.cheimread.com

Ab Ex painter that never quite received the accolades that his contemporaries De Kooning, Ad Reinhardt did during the 50's. However, it appears that he may have laid the ground work for the minimalists like Robert Ryman, Donald Judd, et. all. His all over approach to painting brought into question the fore ground, middle ground, back ground dictum of the modernists and paved the way for a new way of looking at painting.

Thornton Dial b. 1928 "Bone House" mixed media 75"x99"x11"  2000

Rick Griffin or Phillip Guston............which eye ball came first? 

Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997) "Egg Sock" oil on canvas 1996
http://www.zwirnerandwirth.com

Kippenberger combined many styles and approaches to his art making. Eclectic, provocative   and oddly egalitarian, he was chided by many in the art world for his prankster style and self promoting demeanor. However, many considered his unusual mix of sculpture, painting and installations a harbinger of things to come in the art community.

Steve Gibson  "South Park" mixed media on paper 30"x41" 2012

http://www.stevegibsonart.com

Agnes Martin "Untitled" oil on canvas 72"x72" 1977
http://www.zwirnerandwirth.com

Martin's quietly elegant work evokes a poetic toughness that can only be explained via her focused mind and unerring hand. Her installation at the DIA Beacon is a wonderful homage to her vision and skill as a painter. Not to be missed if you are in NYC.

Richard Hull  "Age" oil and wax on linen 24"x20"  2012
http://www.westernexhibitions.com

Hull is a Chicago based artist that has been exhibiting his paintings since the mid 70's. He has evolved his imagery from early architectural narratives to a more abstract approach in his more recent work. Although they are abstract, the paintings underlying elements of a figurative iconography are apparent. Having viewed his work over these many years, I am impressed with his ability to retain a consistent thread while continuing his push into new realms and possibilities.

Aidan Doherty  "Jumping Geoffrey" oil on linen 50cmx45cm  2008
http://www.aidandoherty.co.uk

Doherty is a young painter that works intuitively and without much concept cluttering his mind as he slowly develops his images. He paints, scrapes and removes areas that develop elements of interest. These elements of interest are then reworked and labored over until they reveal a subtle and refined surface where intriguing  imagery confronts the viewer. Very engaging work.http://www.aidandoherty.co.uk

Matt Connors  "The Cave" oil on canvas 16"x14.25" 2005
http://www.baileygallery.com


The artists description of his approach to his work:
"The way I think about my work is more of a long-term/bigger-picture/evolutionary-process kind of mode, wherein the larger body of work that is slowly emerging is perhaps more important, or more relevant than each individual work or individual grouping of works/installation....There's a process within individual works, but there's also a larger idea of process, progress, learning, constructing meaning (a kind of personal poetics) that I hope emerges from the works/installations/shows in relation to one another, forwards and backwards in time."

Chris Martin "Seven Pointed Star For Darwin" mixed media on canvas 29 1/2"x25 1/8" 2006-09
http://www.corcoran.org

What's not to like? Martin has rightfully gained the title of "an artists artist" in his adopted town of Brooklyn. He has consistently followed his own path as a painter for over 40 years. His audacious approach to producing work blends intuition with intellectual rigor that yields results that are surprisingly accessible and enjoyable. 

Gary Stephan  "Untitled" acrylic on canvas  56"x70" 2011
http://www.deveningprojects.com

Stephan has been producing paintings since the late 60's. For me, his work has always had the unique quality of pushing imagery and technique into unfamiliar territory. His work initiates a feeling that it is wrong but in the right way. 

Alexander Gorilzki  "Today's The Day" pigment on paper 14 5/8" 20 3/8" 2011

http://www.gdvgallery.com

Gorilzki works with a studio in India that collaborates with him in producing intimate, eccentric and supremely crafted surreal/op images. He borrows on the tradition of Indian and Persian miniatures, tantric themes and obsessive, if slightly off kilter, design. 

Peter Saul "Better than De Kooning" acrylic and oil on canvas 2008 84"x72"

http://www.davidnolangallery.com

Arguably one of the most subversive painters of his or any other generation. Saul is at his best when he lambasts the pretentious elements of society. His technique is masterful and his skewed vision of the world has been consistent and unrelenting for over 40 years.

Forrest Bess  1911-1977     "untitled" oil on canvas  1947 4.5"x2.8"
http://www.menil.org

In case you missed the Whitney Biennial this year, the Menil Collection in Houston, Tx. will be installing a show of Forrest Bess and Robert Gober in the Spring of 2013.

Bess was a self taught visionary painter from Bay City, Tx. that showed his paintings with the  Betty Parsons Gallery in NYC from 1949 to 1967. His work was developed with a quirky system of abstract  symbols derived from his dreams and his reading of medicine, psychology, philosophy, anthropology books as well as Carl Jung. 

Zak Prekop  Untitled  oil on linen 36.5"x28.25" 2009

http://www.shanecampbellgallery.com

Here is good evidence that painting is alive, well and flourishing in some studios in Brooklyn.

Richard Aldrich  "Large Treib Painting" oil, wax, and pencil on linen 84"x58" 2008

http://www.bortolamigallery.com

Is this an example of:
a. provisional painting
b. relational aesthetics
c. open ended painting
d. none of the above