MALMO.- Is it possible to paint without a brush? This spring and summer, Moderna Museet Malmö is showing eleven works that explore the meaning of painting in one way or another. The exhibition Lies about Painting presents recent acquisitions to the Moderna Museet Collection, including works by Klara Lidén, Jutta Koether, Wade Guyton, Tauba Auerbach and Fredrik Vaerslev. Lies about Painting opened on 9 March with a special tour by the director and curator, John Peter Nilsson.

Thanks to donations and purchases in recent years, the Moderna Museet collection has acquired several profoundly interesting new works by Swedish and international artists that in some way examine the representation of painting. Eleven of these new acquisitions are presented in a thematic exhibition, Lies about Painting, which are shown in the upper gallery at Moderna Museet Malmö.

The question of whether painting is still a viable and credible artistic medium arises at regular intervals, alongside a discussion that emphasises the conceptual presence of painting. The works featured in Lies about Painting do not necessarily have these issues as their main focus, but they can nevertheless be interpreted, in some sense, as deconstructions of the phenomenon of painting itself. In different ways, they reveal the various notions – or even lies – surrounding the art of painting.

The exhibition includes works by Jutta Koether, Marianna Uutinen and Klara Lidén, who undermine the often dominating perception of painting as a male activity. To some extent, these artists imitate the look of abstract expressionism and monochromes. However, by using cheap paints or materials that can be regarded as ugly, any pretentions of sublimity are shifted. Monika Marklinger, also featured in Lies about Painting, does not even make paintings. In a video lasting only a few seconds, she asks why anybody bothers to paint!

“Perhaps the most difficult thing an artist can do today is to paint on canvas. There are those who still manage to surprise and be innovative. And then there are those who deconstruct painting, to examine whether previous notions about painting in particular are still valid. Lies about Painting delivers eleven different ways of doing that,” says John Peter Nilsson, director of Moderna Museet Malmö and curator of the exhibition.

Lies about Painting, Moderna Museet Malmö, 9 March – 25 August, 2013.

Participating artists: Tauba Auerbach, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Wade Guyton, Alex Israel, Sergej Jensen, Jutta Koether, Klara Lidén, Michel Majerus, Monika Marklinger, Marianna Uutinen and Fredrik Vaerslev.