This exhibition features videos and works from artists of the 1980s. The art world of the 1980s was a place of artistic diversity and aesthetic contention. The decade of the 1980s is characterized by the coexistence of a diverse range of artistic practices. Neo-expressionists jostled for theoretical (and commercial) position with abstract painters, installation and performance artists, appropriation artists and others.
My intention was to show a few of the art works that made history in the 80s. The exhibition features pieces by David Salle, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, fellow classmate Rafael Germoso and a piece done by yours truly.
Each of the different artists takes a unique approach towards art and displaying the message. Whether, it’s a painting aimed towards the mass media, a mural against the usage of crack cocaine, a statue of a popular cultural icon, a photograph mixed with text attacking American consumerism, the interview of a gone too soon artist who transformed Neo expressionist or video mashups. Each contributes and contributed to the art world in their own way. So, please take a look through all the images and videos posted and embrace the Art from the 80s.
David Salle. “Satori Three Inches Within Your Heart” 1988. This is a painting done with acrylic. In his work, Salle highlights the range and availability of images encountered in a technological, mass media age. He demonstrates that while we are bombarded with information, its meaning or significance is often lost. Like many of his paintings, this work includes direct quotations from works of art. It is his use of images from pornographic publications, however, that has been most provocative. Salle has explained that “the point about the poses in my work is that they are the body in extremes often seen from strange points of view and spatial organization. It has more to do with abstract choreography and angles of vision than with pornographic narrative”. ‘Satori’ is a Japanese term meaning ‘sudden enlightenment’.
Keith Haring.” Crack is Wack Mural”, 1986. Famed graffiti artist Keith Haring (1958–1990) painted this fanciful mural, located at East 128th Street and the Harlem River Drive, in 1986. Painted on the northern face of the handball court wall, the mural is composed of Haring’s signature kinetic figures and abstract forms in bold outlines. Crack is a highly potent, addictive, and dangerous form of smokable cocaine whose use reached epidemic proportions in the mid- to late 1980s. Haring’s mural cautions youth against the drug’s use. Unfortunately Haring died of AIDS in 1990 but his art work continues to live on.
Jean Michel Basquiat. (1960-1988). Neo-Expressionist Artist. The exhibit features a video excerpt about the talented, Neo- Expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.On this program we see a rare interview with the mercurial painter, Jean-Michel Basquiat, conducted in 1981 in his studio on Crosby Street, in SOHO. Basquiat, an internationally renowned artist as well as the enfant terrible of the 1980′s art scene, died tragically in 1988 at the age of 28. Both during his brief life and since his untimely death, stories and legends abound which chronicle his meteoric rise to art world stardom. This excerpt is from Artnewyork.org
Jeff Koons. “Michael Jackson AND Bubbles” (1988) porcelain sculpture. Michael Jackson and Bubbles is a gold polychromed statue that plays up a false aura or allure; kitsch and the Hyperreal; the sacred vs. the profane. Koons commissioned Italian craftsmen to fabricate the sculpture for him; slick, shiny, seductive surface heightened for that hyperreal effect; turns the tradition of figurative sculpture into kitsch; false auras and the degraded sublime. The context is late capitalistic, consumer-oriented society in which values are in question; object-lust, but objects emptied of soul, vanitas imagery and the hyperreal; after so many plastic surgeries Michael Jackson was already hyperreal even before Jeff Koons got to him; cult of celebrity.
Barbara Kruger. “I Shop Therefore I am”, (1987) 111″ by 113″, photographic silkscreen/vinyl.” I shop therefore I am”, is a statement against American consumerism. Kruger keeps her image very clean by layering a small piece of text over a black and white photo of a child’s hand. Because this collage is not a collection of many different images, Kruger’s text makes a strong impact on the viewer, forcing them to think about the underlying message. The red box under the white texts projects the message out toward viewer. The colored framing and the paper-like texture of the black and white photo, make the image seem like an advertisement, maybe another statement against American consumer culture.
Fresh Prince Dance Remix by Rafael Germoso . This “Fresh Prince” dance remix done by Rafael Germoso greatly reflects 1980s pop culture from the imagery, clothes, dance moves and interior decorations.
Video Mashup of Get into the Groove/Take on Me by Nazareth Mendez.
I picked these two specific videos to do mashups of because obviously they are from the 80s, but also because Madonna was very fluent in the art world back then. She was good friends with Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. For her “Sticky and Sweet” tour Madonna had animations done by Keith Haring playing on the screen in the background. Her Get into the Groove video also vivid 1980s culture and style. The other song Take on Me was considered a synthpop track in the 80s and the video for the song incorporated pencil sketch animation, which required a live-action combination
called rotoscoping, in which the live-action footage is traced-over frame by frame
to give the characters realistic movements. Approximately 3,000 frames were rotoscoped, which took 16 weeks to complete.
All these pieces reflect how social and mass media affected art in the 1980s and also how art affected the social and mass media culture.
