Starting off from a selection of works from the collection, THE USES OF PAINTING attempts to engage the spectator in a reflection on the role of painting in contemporary art.  In these works, the medium of painting functions as a discursive structure that at the same time comments on painting itself and its functions in contemporary art practice. This group of works maps out diverse instances in which painting is deconstructed, acquiring, in the process, meanings that go well beyond the painterly and help redefine the genre. Some of the artists dismantle the notion of painting from its own specificities through its formal, conceptual and material deconstruction. Others, use painting to question ideas such as originality and authorship, articulating a commentary on the identity and autonomy of the medium.