Modern art is often explained in terms of freedom — and for good reason. When people talk about the creative revolution that took place toward the end of the 19th century and into the 20th, they ...

The Living End assembles a body of work that cuts across geographies, histories, and contexts, reflecting painting’s progression alongside emerging technologies and changing cultures.

“The Living End: Painting and Other Technologies, 1970-2020,” which opened November 9 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, as with so much of our lives, begins with the Internet.

Baldessari’s video is part of the mammoth (almost 100 works) new exhibit, “The Living End: Painting and Other Technologies, 1970-2020,” curated by Jamilah James at the Museum of Contemporary ...

Toward the end of the thirteenth century, painting became one of the city’s key exports. Duccio was commissioned to paint an altarpiece at the Santa Maria Novella in—rivalry be damned—Florence.

Photo: Anita Posada. Courtesy of Art in Common. Art advisor Irina Stark, on the other hand, continues to be astounded by the amount of painting in the city, thanks in part to its fantastic light.

The painting conjures a roiling ocean, as though Whitten—who later became a scuba diver, and enjoyed hunting octopuses—were envisioning a doomsday resurrection of the Middle Passage dead.

"When he paints and when he creates, He's so calm. And in art, a lot of people feel it can be calming, but it can be stressing, stressful. You don't know what to expect. You might make a mistake.