Painting is one of the most natural ways of expression and as you noted before about crayons, consciously manifests itself at the very early age. We can see a three year old painting, but I would be surprised to see even a 7 year old editing a music, video for example thus, in my mind, makes painting primary to video editing. I separate Art from Decoration to help myself see the universe before my eyes and reason will have a chance to "fragment" it (try renaming "fragment" to "zoom in" for this equasion).
It is just the game of numbers and also could only be an emanation (we do not know how much of what we think we know about the past is true when it comes to irrational - art may have appeared to the contemporary as fragmented then as it does now to us)

The point is that artist will always see an entropy and I believe the "seeing" the entropy is what sets an individual to be an artist, ability to except the entropy will make a good decorator. But this is only a first step, next the one should "zoom out (defragment)" and observe the whole (entropy and its counterpart - what ever that is). It helps if we refer to A. Einstein and Kabala (for western mind) where is proven than things always have counterparts and not disappear but flow from one form/state into another.
Only than there will be something to express - and this "something" is born of observing the universe from outside of the "fragment" or "zoomed out".
The findings/emanations will need to be adapted to the physical world to be presented visually and the "first generation" of this adaptation will be the most natural way of expression - painting.
Then within the physical world this adaptations can be readapted again and again before it will complete its path and become decorative.
If ever this "first generation" adaptations will be exhausted - used to fuel further readoptations. The art itself and mind as we know it will end, individuality will be gone.

I think that is what evoke the Avant-Garde - the resource of the"first generation" visual material was exhausted. What ever was produced is fueling the Art world today, but just about to be exhausted.

I think asking "is the painting dead?" is asking "are we already the Borg?"

ilia