Maggie Gray visits the studio of painter Markus Lüpertz on the occasion of two concurrent retrospectives in Washington D.C.: Markus Lüpertz: Threads of History at the Hirshhorn Museum (May 24 – September 10) and Markus Lüpertz at the Phillips Collection (May 27 – September 3)

Lüpertz remarks: “There is nothing new in painting. It is a discipline [that] we are working within … Painting regenerates through the input of new painters – that’s why it is vital. The quality of painting is a given. We all fail [to meet its] high demands. The key is to fail on higher grounds.”