This Will Have Been: Art, Love, and Politics in the 1980s

by Helen Molesworth

Art of the 1980s oscillated between radical and conservative, capricious and political, socially engaged and art historically aware. Published in association with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, this fascinating book chronicles canonical as well as nearly forgotten works of the 1980s, arguing that what has often been dismissed as cynical or ironic should be viewed as a struggle on the part of artists to articulate their needs and desires in an increasingly commodified world. The major developments of the decade—the rise of the commercial art market, the politicization of the AIDS crisis, the increased visibility of women and gay artists and artists of color, and the ascension of new media—are illuminated in works by Sophie Calle, Nan Goldin, Mike Kelley, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, and Lorna Simpson, among others. Essays by leading scholars provide unique perspectives on the decade's competing factions and seemingly contradictory elements, from counterculture to the mainstream, radicalism to democracy and historical awareness, conservatism to feminist politics. Complete with critical texts on each work, This Will Have Been brings into focus the full impact of the art, artists, and political and cultural ruptures of this paradigm-shifting decade. More than 200 full-color reproductions of works in a range of media, including drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture, illustrate this ambitious guide to a period of artistic transformation.

Genres: Art, American History, History

448 pages, Paperback

First published March 27, 2012

About the author

Helen Molesworth is Chief Curator at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston. She edited Louise Lawler's "Twice Untitled and Other Pictures (looking back)", published by the Wexner Center for the Arts and distributed by the MIT Press.

Reviews

[Peter Landau · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know about art, but I want to. No joke. It’s disconcerting how I’ve become less willing to accept the kooky expression of artists than I had been growing up. Urinal on a wall? Genius! But my appreciation of contemporary art has, if not left me cold, been tepid.

Then I read THE END OF ART by Arthur Danto and it became clear. Art ended with the exhibition of Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes, when the narrative that had been developing over hundreds of years stopped and philosophy overtook materials. Since that time, there’s been no center, no driving narrative, and anything goes. While some saw the 1980s as a minor regression due to its embrace of painting, it was more the start of an art industry and capitalization of art as commodity.

I lived through those times, and they were terrible but great in retrospect, as most things turn out to be through the fog of memory and nostalgia. There’s work I love and others that leave me cold, but the era, especially the early 1980s, was an especially vibrant time of experimentation.

Years ago, I bought THIS WILL HAVE BEEN: ART, LOVE AND POLITICS IN THE 1980s, edited by Helen Molesworth, mostly because of the inclusion of an essay by Sarah Schulman. Her piece ends the long book and is a breath of fresh air to all the intellectualizing about art. But the book, which includes several long essays and many shorter ones about a particular artist and work, recreates its time, which includes a lot of bullshit philosophizing but also AIDS, the acceptance of marginalized identities, music, art, politics, etc. -- a kaleidoscope of a fractured time.

As I read, I tried to understand what it was about much of the work that didn’t speak to me, and the best I can come up with is that the interesting aspects of the art are not on display but what can be written about it. Maybe it was the full blossoming of the critic as artist. I might just be conservative in my old age, but I think it’s more that I have an emotional response to art, not a cerebral one, and the best art is one that cannot be articulated.

That doesn’t deny the talent capture between these pages, and in the exhibition which the book is a catalogue from, but I don’t think of art as a puzzle to solve or a statement to make, though it can be. Art is deeper than that, more experiential, and, for me, is a conduit for awe and wonder.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been flipping through looking at the images and am reminded how little I know about art, particularly art from the '80s (other than Basquiat, Sherman, and Mapplethorpe). I'm going to start at the beginning and read this more slowly.

Update: finished--this is really overwhelming, esp. for someone like me who is learning as I go. This is definitely not a book for casual readers; it has so many references to theorists, theories, critics, and other texts that it's easy to get confused (I just gave up looking some of them up after awhile--and I'm someone who has read and studied many of the critics and theorists discussed). The images are are a lot to take in as well. However, I do understand some ways to better interpret and analyze art, and I learned a ton about artists, their inspirations, and the '80s in general.

[Aaron the Pink Donut · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book! great format and and extremely insightful. Covers almost everybody doing work in new york at that time. That being said the only complaint I have is that They barely mention Robert Longo ( which is strange). Other wise this book is a must!