During the 1980s and ’90s, artists traced how the perception and value of art are determined by institutions within capitalist culture. These institutions include museums like this one, as well as the studios, galleries, homes, and offices where art is made, displayed, and written about. The artists in this period cited what they saw as the unfinished work of a previous generation, revisiting historic artworks as available material for renewed consideration. They also reproduced multiple versions of their objects to insist that critique isn’t uniform but has to be reframed and restaged within every context.
Over the past decade and a half, a subsequent generation of Conceptual artists has continued this tradition, embodying and collectivizing criticisms of patriarchy, racism, and ableism. Like their precursors, these approaches have implicated art in systems of power, including the industries of globalized shipping and corporatized medicine. This work of questioning institutions is incomplete—the need to do so is filled with creative possibilities.
Organized by Thomas Lax, Curator, Department of Media and Performance, with Abby Hermosilla, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Curatorial Affairs.
