This might be the moment for a movement—a totally 80s one. In its new show, " This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s," the ICA posits that the 1980s might well be an art movement unto its own. It was a period that saw women artists finally enter the mainstream.
It saw artists react prolifically and emotionally against Reagan/Thatcher politics and the ensuing culture wars. It witnessed the birth of punk, hip-hop and street art. It was a time of harrowing loss as the AIDS crisis tore through a wide swath of the cultural community. And it was also an era of excess with art becoming big business and people like Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jeff Koons becoming household names. See Jared Bowen tour the exhibit with ICA Chief Curator Helen Molesworth below.
ICA chief curator Helen Molesworth discusses Jeff Koons’ “Rabbit”—his 1986 sculpture that patrons love and love to hate.
Web extra: ICA chief curator Helen Molesworth, clip 1 from WGBH News on Vimeo.
The last gallery in the show is poignantly titled “Desire and Longing.” Helen Molesworth discusses the devastating impact of the AIDS crisis on the 1980s art world.
Web extra: ICA chief curator Helen Molesworth, clip 2 from WGBH News on Vimeo.
