Once again painting has proven to be tenacious and enduring. Long neglected in the shadow of photography, video, and Readymades, it now vehemently holds its own in contemporary art. Painters of the young generation combine the sensual joy of color and format, gesture and storytelling with their processing of the digital media which shape the world today. Expressive traditions live on in the new painting as much as cool strategies, yet the approach of the painters is always calculated and reflective of the medium's history. This publication includes essays by Christoph Heinrich and Gudrun Inboden on contemporary painting from the Rudolf and Ute Scharpff Collection. At the same time it gives an excellent overview of the painting scene today. In the past few years the collectors have focused on the new generation, collecting major works by Neo Rauch, Franz Ackermann, Michel Majerus, and Daniel Richter, as well as paintings by Sarah Morris, Glenn Brown, Darren Almond, and a group of works by Albert Oehlen, whose ironically serious commentary on the state of painting-and the world-was an inspiration and a model for many painters of the young generation. Exhibition schedule: Hamburger Kunsthalle, November 7, 2003 -February 29, 2004 · Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, March 20 - June 13, 2004