Those of you who are friends with Jerry Saltz on the social networking siteFacebook know that of late he has reopened the old “is painting dead”chestnut, and has even promised – surely in jest – to pay $10,000 to anyonewho can prove to him that it is. We have good news for Saltz, and bad newsfor anyone who was hoping to make a bundle of cash off the critic andpainting fan: According to statistics we just got from the upcoming WhitneyBiennial, paintings account for nearly a quarter of the works in theexhibition. (There are 55 works total; 13 of them are paintings.) That’s thehighest percentage of works in any medium in the show; there are morepaintings than there is anything else. (Film/video clocks in just below, with 12 entries.) Here are just a few of the painters to look for as you are celebratingpainting’s very-much-aliveness, come February: Julia Fish, Suzanne Frecon,Tauba Auerbach, Sarah Crowner and Verne Dawson.