ARTISTS
SECOND WAVE: Aesthetics of the 80s in Today's Contemporary Art
SECOND WAVE: Aesthetics of the 80s in Today鈥檚 Contemporary Art explores the influences of the artistic styles and subject matter from the artists in the 1980s on a new generation of artists, who were born or raised in the 80s, and have expressed the importance of this decade from nearly thirty years ago on their own work.
The art world of the 1980s was a decade that saw the resurgence of painting, exploration of authenticity, the employment of appropriation, an embrace and critique of consumerism, along with the rise of graffiti art, gay activism, and multiculturalism. While not an exhaustive list, some of the more familiar artists associated with this time include Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ross Bleckner, Eric Fischl, Jack Goldstein, Gran Fury, Guerilla Girls, Peter Halley, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, David Salle, Julian Schnabel, Cindy Sherman, and Mark Tansey.
From a grand narrative perspective, much of the spirit behind their work could be viewed as a reaction to the prior decade of the 1970s that saw a rise of 鈥渁nti-aesthetic鈥� work with conceptual art, process art, earth art, and performance. The rising profile of the artist鈥檚 voice that occurred in the 1980s might be best symbolized by the 鈥渃ulture wars鈥� that happened at the end of the decade when senator Jesse Helms attacked the National Endowment for the Arts for supporting work that made visible what had been repressed socially: sexuality, desire, power, and more. In other words, the artist鈥檚 voice was having such an impact that it attracted the attention of a senator, although negatively, and was underscored by the political atmosphere emboldened by Reaganomic deregulation.
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SECOND WAVE: Aesthetics of the 80s in Today鈥檚 Contemporary Art explores the influences of the artistic styles and subject matter from the artists in the 1980s on a new generation of artists, who were born or raised in the 80s, and have expressed the importance of this decade from nearly thirty years ago on their own work.
The art world of the 1980s was a decade that saw the resurgence of painting, exploration of authenticity, the employment of appropriation, an embrace and critique of consumerism, along with the rise of graffiti art, gay activism, and multiculturalism. While not an exhaustive list, some of the more familiar artists associated with this time include Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ross Bleckner, Eric Fischl, Jack Goldstein, Gran Fury, Guerilla Girls, Peter Halley, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, David Salle, Julian Schnabel, Cindy Sherman, and Mark Tansey.
From a grand narrative perspective, much of the spirit behind their work could be viewed as a reaction to the prior decade of the 1970s that saw a rise of 鈥渁nti-aesthetic鈥� work with conceptual art, process art, earth art, and performance. The rising profile of the artist鈥檚 voice that occurred in the 1980s might be best symbolized by the 鈥渃ulture wars鈥� that happened at the end of the decade when senator Jesse Helms attacked the National Endowment for the Arts for supporting work that made visible what had been repressed socially: sexuality, desire, power, and more. In other words, the artist鈥檚 voice was having such an impact that it attracted the attention of a senator, although negatively, and was underscored by the political atmosphere emboldened by Reaganomic deregulation.
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