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Summary
Summary
This handsome book is the first comprehensive examination of the Pictures Generation, a loosely knit group of artists working in New York from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. The overarching subject of the work of these artists was imagery itself-how pictures not only depict but also shape how we perceive the world and ourselves. The collective achievement of this group is an extremely important chapter in the history of contemporary art.
Born into an expanding media and consumer culture and educated in the strategies of Minimal and Conceptual art, the artists of the Pictures Generation, including Robert Longo, Richard Prince, David Salle, and Cindy Sherman, chose to return to representation, addressing the rhetorical, social, and psychological functions of the image across all media (photography, painting and sculpture, drawings and prints, film and video, and music and performance). While the careers of these artists are typically considered in isolation, this catalogue traces their complex interrelationships and mutual development-beginning with the emergence of a group sensibility characterized by techniques of distancing and theatricality and ending with a resurgence of painting by mostly male artists (which was contested by women artists working in media such as video, photography, and installation).
Featured artists: ⁊Ericka Beckman
⁊Dara Birnbaum
⁊Barbara Bloom
⁊Eric Bogosian
⁊Glenn Branca
⁊Troy Brauntuch
⁊James Casebere
⁊Sarah Charlesworth
⁊Rhys Chatham
⁊Charlie Clough
⁊Nancy Dwyer
⁊Jack Goldstein
⁊Barbara Kruger
⁊Louise Lawler
⁊Thomas Lawson
⁊Sherrie Levine
⁊Robert Longo
⁊Allan McCollum
⁊Paul McMahon
⁊Matt Mullican
⁊Richard Prince
⁊David Salle
⁊Cindy Sherman
⁊Laurie Simmons
⁊Michael Smith
⁊James Welling
⁊Michael Zwack
Author Notes
Douglas Eklund is Associate Curator in the Department of Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Reviews (9)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A gleeful sense of irony takes center stage in this coffee table catalog of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Pictures Generation exhibition. Immersed in the political era book-ended by Nixon and Reagan, the artists here came of age during mass media's first years, and their wildly divergent experiments with Pop, minimal and conceptual art hold a common concern with social commentary, including race relations, sexuality, feminism and consumerism. Of Eklund's three essays, the Met associate curator's opener, "Image Art after Conceptualism," is the standout, examining the photographers who hailed from the then-nascent West Coast Institute of Art and made up the "CalArts Mafia." The movement concerned itself with deconstructing the myth and artifice behind stereotypical images of women and minorities, and the subtle dismantling of advertising campaigns and icons, preceding by decades the culture jamming/ad busting trend of the 1990s and 2000s. Long overdue for a retrospective, this class of artists produces a stunning collection; though the text is largely aimed at professionals or academics, this handsome volume should appeal to any reader interested in conceptual arts. (May) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
Choice Review
The Pictures Generation, itself an exhibition catalogue, is constructed around its namesake exhibition (1977) at New York's nonprofit Artists Space. The historical importance of the early professional development of this group of artists (John Baldessari to Michael Zwack) is unquestionable, and Eklund (Metropolitan Museum) re-creates it using well-illustrated, compelling, focused essays. However, the broader background history referenced here is too reliant on the exclusive appropriateness of late modern art labels and definitions--themselves subjects of intense debate--to define these artists' explicit contributions to an emerging American form of postmodernism. The modernist formula--new art equals opposition--is unhelpful when explanations of American postmodernism's who, why, and what continue to emerge. This volume does not reveal the art historical heritage that is the broader context from which these artists' concepts arose. Eklund offers an ambitious, important recounting that perhaps explains why, to its credit, the book reaches out to include artists who were not initially a part of the title's subject. Within the proposed historical framework, this book's most important contribution is its documentation of a select group of young artists whose works gained serious critical reception within a specific period of time, marked by the emergence of an establishment-defined postmodernism. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. W. B. Folkestad Central Washington University
Library Journal Review
Eklund (associate curator, department of photographs, Metropolitan Museum of Art) examines a group of New York artists known as the "Pictures Generation," which included Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, and David Salle. These artists followed the 1960s pop art movement with artwork that looked more critically at the social and psychological value of images, mostly in mass-media design, photography, and film. They worked in a wide variety of formats, including film, photography, performance, appropriation of text and images, and painting. The artists studied here have been discussed individually in numerous books and articles; however, this is the first major overview of the entire group. Verdict Although overly analytic in some areas, Eklund is very effective in dissecting the group dynamics of these artists, who emerged from different schools and then formed important relationships. The documentation is also excellent owing to the inclusion of interviews and bibliographies.-Eric Linderman, Euclid P.L., OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A gleeful sense of irony takes center stage in this coffee table catalog of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Pictures Generation exhibition. Immersed in the political era book-ended by Nixon and Reagan, the artists here came of age during mass media's first years, and their wildly divergent experiments with Pop, minimal and conceptual art hold a common concern with social commentary, including race relations, sexuality, feminism and consumerism. Of Eklund's three essays, the Met associate curator's opener, "Image Art after Conceptualism," is the standout, examining the photographers who hailed from the then-nascent West Coast Institute of Art and made up the "CalArts Mafia." The movement concerned itself with deconstructing the myth and artifice behind stereotypical images of women and minorities, and the subtle dismantling of advertising campaigns and icons, preceding by decades the culture jamming/ad busting trend of the 1990s and 2000s. Long overdue for a retrospective, this class of artists produces a stunning collection; though the text is largely aimed at professionals or academics, this handsome volume should appeal to any reader interested in conceptual arts. (May) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
Choice Review
The Pictures Generation, itself an exhibition catalogue, is constructed around its namesake exhibition (1977) at New York's nonprofit Artists Space. The historical importance of the early professional development of this group of artists (John Baldessari to Michael Zwack) is unquestionable, and Eklund (Metropolitan Museum) re-creates it using well-illustrated, compelling, focused essays. However, the broader background history referenced here is too reliant on the exclusive appropriateness of late modern art labels and definitions--themselves subjects of intense debate--to define these artists' explicit contributions to an emerging American form of postmodernism. The modernist formula--new art equals opposition--is unhelpful when explanations of American postmodernism's who, why, and what continue to emerge. This volume does not reveal the art historical heritage that is the broader context from which these artists' concepts arose. Eklund offers an ambitious, important recounting that perhaps explains why, to its credit, the book reaches out to include artists who were not initially a part of the title's subject. Within the proposed historical framework, this book's most important contribution is its documentation of a select group of young artists whose works gained serious critical reception within a specific period of time, marked by the emergence of an establishment-defined postmodernism. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. W. B. Folkestad Central Washington University
Library Journal Review
Eklund (associate curator, department of photographs, Metropolitan Museum of Art) examines a group of New York artists known as the "Pictures Generation," which included Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, and David Salle. These artists followed the 1960s pop art movement with artwork that looked more critically at the social and psychological value of images, mostly in mass-media design, photography, and film. They worked in a wide variety of formats, including film, photography, performance, appropriation of text and images, and painting. The artists studied here have been discussed individually in numerous books and articles; however, this is the first major overview of the entire group. Verdict Although overly analytic in some areas, Eklund is very effective in dissecting the group dynamics of these artists, who emerged from different schools and then formed important relationships. The documentation is also excellent owing to the inclusion of interviews and bibliographies.-Eric Linderman, Euclid P.L., OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A gleeful sense of irony takes center stage in this coffee table catalog of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Pictures Generation exhibition. Immersed in the political era book-ended by Nixon and Reagan, the artists here came of age during mass media's first years, and their wildly divergent experiments with Pop, minimal and conceptual art hold a common concern with social commentary, including race relations, sexuality, feminism and consumerism. Of Eklund's three essays, the Met associate curator's opener, "Image Art after Conceptualism," is the standout, examining the photographers who hailed from the then-nascent West Coast Institute of Art and made up the "CalArts Mafia." The movement concerned itself with deconstructing the myth and artifice behind stereotypical images of women and minorities, and the subtle dismantling of advertising campaigns and icons, preceding by decades the culture jamming/ad busting trend of the 1990s and 2000s. Long overdue for a retrospective, this class of artists produces a stunning collection; though the text is largely aimed at professionals or academics, this handsome volume should appeal to any reader interested in conceptual arts. (May) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
Choice Review
The Pictures Generation, itself an exhibition catalogue, is constructed around its namesake exhibition (1977) at New York's nonprofit Artists Space. The historical importance of the early professional development of this group of artists (John Baldessari to Michael Zwack) is unquestionable, and Eklund (Metropolitan Museum) re-creates it using well-illustrated, compelling, focused essays. However, the broader background history referenced here is too reliant on the exclusive appropriateness of late modern art labels and definitions--themselves subjects of intense debate--to define these artists' explicit contributions to an emerging American form of postmodernism. The modernist formula--new art equals opposition--is unhelpful when explanations of American postmodernism's who, why, and what continue to emerge. This volume does not reveal the art historical heritage that is the broader context from which these artists' concepts arose. Eklund offers an ambitious, important recounting that perhaps explains why, to its credit, the book reaches out to include artists who were not initially a part of the title's subject. Within the proposed historical framework, this book's most important contribution is its documentation of a select group of young artists whose works gained serious critical reception within a specific period of time, marked by the emergence of an establishment-defined postmodernism. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. W. B. Folkestad Central Washington University
Library Journal Review
Eklund (associate curator, department of photographs, Metropolitan Museum of Art) examines a group of New York artists known as the "Pictures Generation," which included Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, and David Salle. These artists followed the 1960s pop art movement with artwork that looked more critically at the social and psychological value of images, mostly in mass-media design, photography, and film. They worked in a wide variety of formats, including film, photography, performance, appropriation of text and images, and painting. The artists studied here have been discussed individually in numerous books and articles; however, this is the first major overview of the entire group. Verdict Although overly analytic in some areas, Eklund is very effective in dissecting the group dynamics of these artists, who emerged from different schools and then formed important relationships. The documentation is also excellent owing to the inclusion of interviews and bibliographies.-Eric Linderman, Euclid P.L., OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
