Details

Subject(s)

• Charlesworth, Sarah 1947-2013 [Browse]
• Goldstein, Jack 1945-2003 [Browse]
• Longo, Robert [Browse]
• Brauntuch, Troy 1954- [Browse]
• Bender, Gretchen 1951-2004 [Browse]
• Pictures Generation (Group of artists) [Browse]
• Art, American—20th century [Browse]
• Fascism in art [Browse]
• Art and society—United States [Browse]
• Art and popular culture—United States [Browse]

Summary note

• "The group of artists known as the "Pictures Generation" are usually thought to have rebelled against abstract and minimalist art by bringing back figural techniques and borrowing liberally from the aesthetics of mass media and advertising. Challenging conventional interpretations of this group, Alexander Bigman argues that these artists-especially Robert Longo, Jack Goldstein, Sarah Charlesworth, Gretchen Bender, and Troy Brauntuch-deployed totalitarian and fascist iconography to pose new, politically loaded questions about what it means to perceive the world historically in a society saturated by images. Throughout, he also situates their work in the context of other developments taking place in New York City at the time, including music, fashion, cinema, and literature. This is a book about art, popular culture, and memory, and especially about how the specter of fascism loomed for these artists in the 1970s and 1980s, and the ways it still looms for us today"-- Provided by publisher.
• "A fresh take on the legacy of the group of artists known as the Pictures Generation, reinterpreting their work as haunted by the history of fascism and the threat of its return. The artists of the Pictures Generation, converging on New York City in the late 1970s, indelibly changed the shape of American art. It has long been thought that this group's main contribution was to rebel against abstraction by bringing back figural techniques and borrowing liberally from the aesthetics of mass media. In Pictures and the Past, however, art critic and historian Alexander Bigman presents us with a bold new interpretation of the artists' most significant work, in particular its recurring evocations of fascist iconography. Challenging conventional narratives, Bigman argues that these artists-especially Sarah Charlesworth, Jack Goldstein, Troy Brauntuch, Robert Longo, and Gretchen Bender-posed pressing questions about what it means to perceive the world historically in a society saturated by images. He argues that their traumatic references represent not only a coded form of political commentary about the 1980s, but also a pioneering reflection on the inherently political nature of collective memory writ large. Throughout, Bigman situates their work within a larger cultural context comprising developments in music, fashion, cinema, and literature. Pictures and the Past probes the shifting relationships between art, popular culture, and memory in the 1970s and '80s, examining how the specter of fascism loomed for artists then-and the ways it still looms for us today"-- Provided by publisher.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• Introduction : beyond fascinating
• Sarah Charlesworth at the end of Modern history
• Memory traces in the work of Jack Goldstein
• Troy Brauntuch and the figuring of "distance"
• Robert Longo in the shadow of Empire
• Gretchen Bender's mnemonic theater
• Epilogue : fascinating again.

Show 4 more Contents items

Other title(s)

Media, memory, and the specter of fascism in postmodern art

ISBN

• 9780226833071 (hardcover)
• 0226833070 (hardcover)

LCCN

2023048021

OCLC

1399163677

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