Because the show falls in the gap between “historical survey” and irrelevant “summer group show,” the viewer might become distracted by seeing it as a promotional device for select artists, one that seems directed toward art-market shoppers who bank on the artist who is gullible enough to try and do the next thing. In subtitling the exhibition “now and forever,” the organizers seem to have overlooked another meaning of this phrase, which is that we live in an eternal present that is constantly changing. Had they thought of that, they would have come up with a show that didn’t announce “the death of painting” all over again, and instead dealt with mortality, contingency, and the dream of freedom and possibility that the artists I have cited have been quietly toiling at throughout the ’80s and ’90s. Ten years ago, Marks and Hearn didn’t seem to have much of an agenda, and they grouped together artists as diverse as Franz Ackerman, Joanne Greenbaum, Sherrie Levine, Larry Poons, and Susan Williams. There was something oddball, anarchic, and finally endearing about seeing those works together. “Part II” is a long way from that one, and not just in terms of time. The title of the exhibition could have come from Michael Krebber’s painting, Contempt for One’s Own Work as Planning for Career. "Painting: Now and Forever, Part II" originally appeared in the October 2008 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' October 2008 Table of Contents.