Patrick Neal reviews On Painting at Kent Fine Art, New York, on view through July 29, 2016.

Neal writes: “How to make sense of a show of painterly, figurative art in 2016 is part of the fun when taking in On Painting… Many figurative painters are engaged in what the critic Roberta Smith has referred to as ‘Modernism Redux,’ sifting through the nooks and crannies of art history for inspiration and a ‘style-reviving vitality.’ This freedom to source past styles is present throughout On Painting, in ways that are alternately rigorous and adamant, and wan and amorphous.”