Without ever giving painting lessons, Alain Gunst here lists 32 reasons to paint that, whether “bad” or “less bad,” take a mischievous pleasure in mocking a world of art now obsessed with festivity, ostentation, and spectacle. To the point that the true artist might wonder: “Why paint at all?” With a half-smile, the sage dismisses the question: the issue is not there… His studies in architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris led Alain Gunst (1937) to painting. From 1975 to 1985, he worked with the great masters of modern and contemporary art at the gallery of Nicole and Lucien Durand, where he exhibited. Later, at ENSAN in Nantes, he taught the criteria of quality in art, drawing, and sensitive urbanism.