I don't know if this is the kind of thing you are looking for, but here is a quote refuting the idea that painting is dead from the late twentieth century...

"No, I don't think is doomed. I think there are always going to be people who like something which is silent, static and incontrovertible. Because for the same reason that in our actual lives, we don't want a continuous, thin-sensory bombardment, you just want to have areas of silence, and areas of reflection."

--Robert Hughes (Art Critic)