Bad painting is the critique of painting expressed with its own most essential means: Many of the most important painters of the 20th century like Francis Picabia, René Magritte, Asger Jorn, Philip Guston, Neil Jenney, Georg Baselitz, Albert Oehlen or Julian Schnabel radically called their medium into question using different strategies of incorrect, faulty, ugly or angry painting in order to open up new possibilities for the medium. Using prominent works by 21 artists, the exhibition presents “bad painting” as a phenomenon which opens a new and differentiated perspective on the history of painting since the beginning of modernism which today still influences contemporary discourse.

The exhibition leads up to current “bad painting” positions, including John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage. They assail the American canon of values of decency, decorum, “good taste” and beauty in a way which is often condemned as shocking, sensationalist, “politically incorrect”and “reactionary.”

his exhibition of Israeli and Palestinian artists offers an opportunity to discuss different artistic practices from a conflicted area.  Many of the art works in the exhibition are based on Civil Society structures, as many of the artists in this show are themselves social and cultural activists. Despite of wanting to show complexity and variety, the exhibition does not presume to encompass all visions or show the
full spectrum of positions. Rather, this show tries to shed light on some interesting corners of
the cultural and social practices and debate within the Israeli and Palestinian art scenes.

The artists include the Palestinians Osama Zatar, Raed Bawayeh and Jumana Manna, and the Israelis Yoav Weiss, Shula Keshet, Tal Adler and the Tel Aviv groups Parrhesia and Zochrot.

The Essl Museum can be easily reached with a free Busshuttle, from Vienna City Center,
Albertinaplatz 2 (Tues – Sun, 10 a.m., 12 a.m., 2 p.m., 4 p.m.)