7. Postmodernism: The Pictures Generation

Question 1

Postmodernism: The Pictures Generation

Answer 1

• Group of American artists emerged in the late 1970s.
• Artists from New York, Buffalo (NY) and California.
• Pictures: exhibition curated by Douglas Crimp at Artists Space in 1977.
• The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984: exhibition at Metropolitan Museum in 2009.
• Based on the use of appropriation and montage.
• Exposed cultural tropes and stereotypes.
• Challenged ideas of originality and authorship.
• Exposed the mechanisms of media.
• Recurring use of allegory.
• The work of art becomes a visual essay.
• References to Conceptual Art and Pop Art.
• Major figures: Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, Richard Prince.