100 Works of Art
The other day, the Huffington Post posted an article about the Thames & Hudson book: "100 Works of Art That Define Our Age". I certainly agreed with a few of their selections, but thought I would list out 10 works of art that I think "define our age" (whatever that means).
In no particular order:
1. Marina Abramovic - Rhythm 0 (pretty much any Marina performance could have been used, but I've always found this one to be the most fascinating on so many different levels)
2. Matthew Barney - Cremaster Cycle (I've always been a fan of the these films. They are fascinating, complex, and have symbology that runs miles and miles deep. That said, I have always enjoyed Barney's Drawing Restraint videos. They are performative in nature and hit at the historical nature of performance art of the 60's, yet the end product are beautiful pencil drawings.)
3. Tino Sehgal - This Is Progress (There really is no way to describe Tino Sehgal's performances. I was lucky enough to experience This Is Progress at the Guggenheim when I was in school and I can honestly say that it changed my perspective on art and life. There is no real documentation of Sehgal's work, but do a Google search and some of the writing will give you a good sense. I will be uploading a link to an article I wrote about This Is Progress for the Performa Arts blog while I was an intern there, so check back.)
4. Damien Hirst - A Thousand Years (I'm not a huge fan of Damien Hirst, but I saw this piece while I was in London last year at the Tate Modern and I was pretty blown away. I spent a significant amount of time watching the flies eat away at the cow's head and thought about the visceral nature of the cycle of life and the relation between each organism on the planet. Definitely a cool piece of art.)
5. Alec Soth - Niagra (Maybe it's just me, but I feel like Alec Soth started a new trend in art photography. There became this emphasis on projects and series with grand conceptual ideas. Of course, the idea of a photography project dates back to the beginning of photography, but Soth's project pushed photography past the famous Garry Winogrand quote, "I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.")
6. Doug Aitken - Sleepwalkers (This is not my favorite Doug Aitken piece of art (see Migration and Text Sculptures ), but Sleepwalkers 's sheer mass and scale - projected on the side of MoMa - makes it hugely influential.
7. Bruce Nauman - The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign) (Again, there are so many Nauman pieces of art that have been so influential and important for the progression of art - how can I look past his sound sculptures and video performance? My thought is that the use of neons have become a widespread medium since (what seems like) Nauman began using them. I also just think that the saying itself is influential.
8. Glenn Ligon - Untitled (America) (Glenn Ligon put African American art on the map, in my opinion. Using all types of media, he has shined light onto racism and injustices that he has faced as a gay black male. His work is beautiful to look at and grounding when understood.)
9. Ed Ruscha - The Back of Hollywood (Ed Ruscha is really a man of words. His paintings just make you think. The text that he paint over his images are perplexing, yet they make sense. The Back of Hollywood , for me, sums up Ruscha's work: ironic, playful, and poignant.)
10. Erwin Wurm - Instructions On How To Be Politically Incorrect (Erwin Wurm's art is nothing but interesting. We all know what it means to be politically incorrect, but Instructions exhibits the hint of our contemporary political incorrectness relating to social media and technology. I can't help but think about the relationship between Facebook stalking and Spit in someones soup (Instructions on how to be politically incorrect).)
Again, there is no specific order here, and I realize that I left a significant amount of really, really, really important works of art out. But just because they weren't included here, doesn't mean they aren't in my 100. I'd also say that if I made another list in 6 months or a year, it would be completely different.