Gianni Jetzer

Curator-at-Large, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

Incoming Director, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen

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Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s

Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

Feb 14–May 13 2018

The major exhibition featuring more than 150 works by over 70 artists investigated the convergence of art and commodity culture in New York City in the 1980s. It retraces the evolution of New York’s downtown art scene from a DIY counterculture in the East Village to a newly established market for emerging artists. Coinciding with the rise of modern branding and the onset of the information age, artists’ focus on commodities and consumerism began as satire but came to be much more complex: commodities and associated phenomena, such as advertising, now served as vessels for ideas, politics, and personal relationships. In parallel, advertising firms developed brand ideas that would go far beyond the product itself. In 1984, Macintosh aired one of the most ambitious commercials in the history of advertising, directed by Ridley Scott and considered today as an ad masterpiece.

 

The exhibition included several notable works from female artists and others that have not been shown since the 80s: Gretchen Bender’s Dumping Core (1984) was shown in full for the rst time since 1987, Barbara Bloom’s installation Planned Abandon (1981) was displayed in full for the first time since 1984, and Krzystof Wodiczko’s projection on the building’s façade, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC, 1988–2000 (1988) was revived for three nights during the exhibition. 

Installation view with works by Matt Mullican and General Idea. Photo: Cathy Carver, Hirshhorn Museum
Installation view with works by Martha Rosler and Jenny Holzer. Photo: Cathy Carver, Hirshhorn Museum
Installation view with works by Ken Lum, Sherrie Levine and Philip Taaffe. Photo: Cathy Carver, Hirshhorn Museum
Installation view with works by James Welling, Gretchen Bender and Barbara Bloom. Photo: Cathy Carver, Hirshhorn Museum
Installation view with works by Alan Belcher, Tishan Hsu, and Robert Gober. Photo: Cathy Carver, Hirshhorn Museum
Installation view with works by Donald Moffett and Jessica Diamond. Photo: Cathy Carver, Hirshhorn Museum
Krzysztof Wodiczko, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC, 1988. Public projection at the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC, February 13-15, 2018. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Lelong, New York. Photo: Joshua Jest

Artists:

ACT UP Gran Fury, Charlie Ahearn, John Ahearn, John M Armleder, Alan Belcher, Gretchen Bender, Ashley Bickerton, Mike Bidlo, Dara Birnbaum, Barbara Bloom, Jennifer Bolande, Sarah Charlesworth, Clegg & Guttmann (Michael Clegg and Yair Martin Guttmann), Jessica Diamond, Jane Dickson, John Dogg (Richard Prince and Colin DeLand), Stefan Eins, R.M. Fischer, General Idea (AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal), Robert Gober, Robert Goldman, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Guerrilla Girls, Peter Halley, Jenny Holzer, Tishan Hsu, Christof Kohlhofer, Jeff Koons, Larry Johnson, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Annette Lemieux, Sherrie Levine, Ken Lum, Frank Majore, MICA-TV (Michael Owen and Carole Ann Klonarides), Allan McCollum, Dick Miller, Donald Moffett, Matt Mullican, Peter Nagy, The Offices of Fend, Fitzgibbon, Holzer, Nadin, Prince & Winters (Peter Fend, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Jenny Holzer, Peter Nadin, Richard Prince and Robin Winters), Tom Otterness, Joel Otterson, Adrian Piper, Richard Prince, David Robbins, Walter Robinson, Ronell Productions (R.M. Fischer and Elliot Wertheim), Martha Rosler, Erika Rothenberg, Christy Rupp, Scott Ridley, Cindy Sherman, Terri Slotkin, Michael Smith, Mark Stahl, Haim Steinbach, Philip Taaffe, Meyer Vaisman, Joan Wallace, Julia Wachtel, Andy Warhol, Tom Warren, James Welling, David Wojnarowicz, B. Wurtz, and Krzysztof Wodiczko.

Press:

Ridley Scott, 1984