The Pictures Generation — The Advertised Generation

I dropped by “The Pictures Generation” at the Met museum, to see the ghost of my own past. I remember when all these images burst upon the scene, advertising and marketing levered, self-reflexive and conceptual. These artists utilized recognizable commercial imagery, and mirrored or reshaped our perceptions of ourselves. The thirty artists in the show are: John Baldessari, Ericka Beckman, Dara Birnbaum, Barbara Bloom, Eric Bogosian, Glenn Branca, Troy Brauntuch, James Casebere, Sarah Charlesworth, Rhys Chatham, Charles Clough, Nancy Dwyer, Jack Goldstein, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Thomas Lawson, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, Allan McCollum, Paul McMahon, MICA-TV (Carole Ann Klonarides & Michael Owen), Matt Mullican, Richard Prince, David Salle, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Michael Smith, James Welling, and Michael Zwack. If you were making art in the 70s and 80s, it's memory lane.



These images are by top: Richard Prince, bottom: Cindy Sherman