Paintingshould

Paintingshould is a neologism used in contemporary art discourse to describe the normative claims critics and artists make about what painting ought to be or accomplish. It frames evaluation and expectation as explicit conditions that painting might meet, rather than as purely descriptive observations of what is currently seen on canvas.

The term appears in online essays, curatorial notes, and artist statements from the early 2020s onward, where discussions about the place of painting in a digitized, AI-influenced visual culture are prominent. It is not an established movement or school, but a rhetorical tool used to examine how painting should respond to technical innovations, social topics, and shifts in audience engagement.

Core themes associated with paintingshould include materiality and process, the tension between abstraction and representation, the role of painting in relation to digital media, and the ethical dimensions of depiction. Proponents might argue that painting should retain a distinct hand or tactility, address time and slowness, or participate in public and political discourse. Critics, by contrast, caution that normative claims can constrain experimentation or privilege certain aesthetics over others.

As a concept, paintingshould sits at the intersection of painting theory, debates about autonomy and context, and the broader postdigital art landscape. It is primarily used as a framework for critique rather than a codified doctrine, inviting ongoing discussion about what painting ought to be in a rapidly evolving visual culture. See also contemporary painting, art criticism, and normativity in art.