Painting is so often pivotal to contemporary art discourse. Other genres seldom equal its ability to express returns and ructions, challenges and constant reformulations. In Berlin, painting has a solid tradition. While other places have repeatedly declared the genre dead, painting simply carried on in the divided city and carried on again after the Wall came down. The exhibition “Paint it all!” is a bugle call and a love letter to recent painting in Berlin. It features ten outstanding artists selected from the Berlinische Galerie’s collection, many on display in the museum for the first time.

Berlin themes cannot be pinned down, nor can a distinctive Berlin style. The old dispute between abstract and figurative is over. The days are gone for building a new romantic myth around subculture and subjectivity. Besides, the proverbially cool city now takes its international ambience for granted. As a result, works rarely reveal where they were made. So how does painting in this city set out its stall? With works that are alive, versatile, serene and sensitive to tradition and discourse. Clearly there are still good reasons for picking up a brush and palette in response to the world and to questions about painting.