The constant questioning and declassification of what art is and what the content of art was, lead to a crisis in painting (there as always been a crisis in painting) – Painting is dead – the exponents of Conceptual Art tried to destroy the art object but failed – thought and the idea is the object. The primary aims of Conceptual Art in the 1960?s was to carry out a theoretical examination of ‘art’ and through understanding propose ‘concepts as art’. Two and three-dimensional art was in the doldrums, the essence of creating was the new Holy Grail.

Bright: I would have wanted to work, but deep down I’m enormously lazy. I like living, breathing, better than working. I don’t think that the work I’ve done can have any social importance whatsoever in the future. Therefore if you wish, my art would be that of living: each second, each breath is a work which is inscribed nowhere, which is neither visual nor cerebral. It is a sort of constant futility.

The definition of what is art and what isn’t has become wooly. Painting is often defined as the application of a medium applied to a surface with a brush but in reality painting can involve other practices like printing.  There are generally unspoken guidelines for what makes a good painting. These intuitive components determine the painting’s aesthetic value. These values and sensibilities constantly go through a shift, depending on cultural, political and social tolerances. There is no longer one definition for what makes a successful painting.