Navigating Complex Terrain:
Themes in Contemporary Art Since 1980 – Part IV:
Art as Social Practice and the Ethical Turn
Paula Burleigh, Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow, Whitney Museum of American Art

Beginning with a group of artists who loosely fit under the rubric of “Relational Aesthetics,” we will look at a social turn in art of the 1990s. In works by Rikrit Tiravaneja, Carsten Höller and others, we will see how social interactions and experiences superseded the traditional art object. We will consider the varying modes of audience participation solicited by artists since the 1990s and beyond, and in particular we will look at artworks that generate social discomfort as a means of enacting political commentary, as in controversial works by Santiago Sierra.

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