Unruly Tools

Painting,often regarded as the oldest of art forms, has been repeatedly declared"dead." In this groundbreaking study, such notions are thoroughly dismantled,as technical art historian Pia Gottschaller demonstrates how paintersradically reimagined the medium in the years following World War II. Nolonger content to limit themselves to the paintbrush in their search for newtypes of expression, artists began to experiment with new methods, employingfound, fabricated, and repurposed objects-as varied as an Afro comb, thehuman body, and a robotic airbrush-to create paintings unlike those ever seenbefore, revolutionizing the course of art history.Beginning with Jackson Pollock and the Gutai Art Association inJapan, Gottschaller traces the transformation of painting across the globefrom the postwar era to the present day before turning to in-depthexplorations of the work of thirty-eight contemporary painters, includingAmoako Boafo, Helen Frankenthaler, Yves Klein, Julie Mehretu, BeatrizMilhazes, Howardena Pindell, Kazuo Shiraga, and Andy Warhol. Richlyillustrated with over 240 images of artists and their creations,Unruly Tools is the firststudy of this kind and offers essential testimony to painting's continuedvitality and reinvention.