John Yau examines Clement Greenberg's legacy in the context of contemporary art focusing on "provisional" and "casual" painting.

Yau writes: "It seems to me that the current situation is not about available options… which span a wide range of possibilities, or about a critic channeling Greenberg’s legacy and identifying the next viable tendency in art. Rather, it revolves around one fundamental question: how does an individual go about making work when a significant part of the art world believes that painting and drawing are dead? Or, to put it another way: after the death of the author, how does an individual reinstate the mantle of authorship and take responsibility for what he or she makes?"