Collection 1970s–Present

202

To Live and Die in New York

Ongoing

MoMA

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Elizabeth Murray. Dis Pair. 1990. Oil and plastic cap on canvas and wood, two parts, 10' 2 1/2" x 10' 9 1/4" x 13" (331.3 x 328.3 x 33 cm). © 2018 Estate of Elizabeth Murray / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: John Wronn
  • MoMA, Floor 2, 202

During the 1980s, New York City teemed with cultural activity—and new venues and mediums for art. Rough-hewn streets still bore the traces of the economic collapse of the 1970s, and many artists responded to urban blight, economic inequality, and the first wave of the AIDS pandemic. At the same time, artists took on the glittering excesses of commodity culture—in a city seen as the finance capital of the world—and the global expansion of the art market. Some, such as Sherrie Levine, even forecasted the end of art itself. Creating work for a growing network of galleries, studios, and storefronts, these artists engaged their local communities and neighborhoods, but they also probed their own personal and private lives. They depicted their friends and lovers, their anxieties and desires—and invented new forms of sculpture and image-making for a changing landscape.

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