Navigating Complex Terrain:
Themes in Contemporary Art Since 1980 – Part I: Appropriation
Paula Burleigh, Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow, Whitney Museum of American Art

This four-part lecture series aims to provide a language and a framework for understanding many important aspects of contemporary art and visual culture today. Each lecture will focus on a thematic center of gravity in the contemporary art world, from the 1980s to 2016: Appropriation; Identity and the Body; The Rise of the Curator; and Art as Social and Ethical Practice.  The lectures will proceed thematically rather than chronologically, an approach that reflects the development of contemporary art as a series of political, social and cultural inquiries as opposed to a linear progression of styles or movement.

This lecture will begin with the so-called Pictures Generation artists who came to prominence in the 1980s, including Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince and Barbara Kruger, who used appropriation to critique mass media, advertising and entertainment culture.  However, we will also move beyond this well-known paradigm to think about appropriation as a means of grappling with the legacy of historical trauma, as is evident in works by Glenn Ligon, Jorma Puranen and Carrie Mae Weems, among others.

LOCATION: the Suburban Club (7600 Park Heights)
$15 door fee for guests and subscribers