About thirty years ago, a revolution in painting occurred when a number of artists in Europe and the United States developed a new approach that disregards all traditional notions of what constitutes a painting. Daniel Buren, John McCracken, Robert Ryman and Niele Toroni, among others, began making paintings by concentrating on one or two of the most basic elements and eliminating the others, such as brushstroke or color or canvas. Painting Zero Degree explores some of their radical pictorial practices and a re-reading of their strategies by an eclectic group of young contemporary artists. Like their predecessors, these younger artists work in nontraditional mediums including furniture, clothing, and video to create their own bold, highly seductive art. In bringing these related groups of essentially abstract works together, guest curator Carlos Basualdo has targeted for closer investigation a new trend of "painting" at the crossroads of architecture, traditional painting, and the decorative arts.

Many of the works in Painting Zero Degree will be installed differently at each venue, tailored to the specific exhibition space. These include Peter Kogler's bright wallpaper, Rudolf Stingel's "Color Field" carpets (ordered from local suppliers), Gladys Nistor's black-felt contact paper "windows," and Daniel Buren's striped linoleum floor piece.

The 72-page illustrated exhibition catalogue features an essay by art historian Ellen Tepfer, providing a general introduction to alternative pictorial practices established over the last thirty years, and another by Basualdo, examining the precedents for the transformative aspects of this exhibition. Painting Zero Degree is also accompanied by a special education program. Basualdo, co-curator of documenta XI (2002), was recently appointed chief curator of the Wexner Art Center.