Early last year, in Brussels, an ambitious, intriguing exhibition, “Painting After Postmodernism: Belgium–USA,” organized by Barbara Rose, issued a provocative challenge to the widespread notion that present-day art must ignore what Marcel Duchamp called “retinal” considerations in favor of the “cerebral.” Conveniently forgetting that the eye is an extrusion of the brain, Duchamp maintained that artists should concentrate on ideas that can be expressed verbally rather than strive to affect our emotions and intellect through purely visual, wordless means. It’s all too plain that Duchamp’s desires are fulfilled by most of the art, usually termed “postmodernist,” that dominates today’s art world—art often characterized by a lack of overt materiality, by cynicism, and by a self-conscious quest for novelty. “Painting After Postmodernism” proposed an alternative vision by bringing together works by sixteen accomplished, highly individual painters, eight American and eight Belgian, some with distinguished careers, albeit not in the Koons–Hirst mode. They were a notably varied group, linked by the shared conviction that “retinal” painting, with its long history and its time-honored materials, never ceased to be important and significant; and connected, too, by common enthusiasm for the sensuality of paint and the allure of ambiguous space.

Not surprisingly, Rose’s selection was idiosyncratic and, of necessity, far from comprehensive. The Americans were Walter Darby Bannard, Karen Gunderson, Martin Kline, Melissa Kretschmer, Lois Lane, Paul Manes, Ed Moses, and Larry Poons. The Belgians, chosen with the assistance of the Brussels-based, Cuban-born, American-educated artist, connoisseur, collector, and gallery