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Basquiat, Jean-Michel. Untitled. 1980, Whitney Museum of American Art, www.whitney.org/collection/works/11460#. This neo-expressionist painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat is filled with vivid, bright colors to highlight the abstraction of the artist's subjectivity--or as Hume would define as ultimate subjectivity decided by the viewer. -
This timeline covers the entire 1980s decade.
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Image source: www.upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8a/Katebushneverforever.png The album artwork for the cover of English singer Kate Bush's third album is an example of thought-provoking semblance as it depicts the birth of unique and fantastical artistic inspiration. -
Image Source: www.artnet.com/artists/ang-kiukok/untitled-yiRhuARWv-w0BWlGALsHXw2. Filipino painter Ang Kiukok's 1981 untitled painting is Cubist in its inspiration but represents an evolved pattern of expressionistic painting in the Neo-expressionist style emerging in the 1980s. This represents Schiller's view on the portrayal of suffering in art.
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Image Source: www.cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0057/3728/3618/products/803274d62004eb9144046c0cb0d188bd_5162e4aa-30b8-44f5-aa08-1ee481addd07.jpg?v=1573585462. Film artist Drew Struzan's iconic design for the poster of Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner represents 1980s pop art. -
Image Source: www.d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/637/393/1072393637.0.x.3.jpg. Before it was made into a film, author Stephen King and illustrator Bernie Wrightson created a graphic novel called Creepshow that evolved the traditional comic book structure to a new art form with a glossy, pop art sensibility. This proves that Plato's theory of imitation can evolve to create new mediums distinct from the original. -
Goldin, Nan. Nan and Brian in Bed. 1983, The Museum of Modern Art, www.moma.org/collection/works/101659. Nan Goldin's Nan and Brian in Bed offers a new and introspective nature to the theme of sensuality in photography that was tailor-made for the freedom allowed with Neo-expressionism. Through shadows and soft lighting, Goldin creates an image of erotic suggestiveness that is wholly modern. -
Image Source: www.tombianchi.com/fire-island-pines-polaroids/gs4ztihr6adribxewy1qfqsz9god8h. Personal Photography and polaroid’s present images that are both intimate and forever framed in a hazy, nostalgic glow. Tom Bianchi uses polaroid to present subjects in loving embraces that cancel out the domineering and overriding bigotry of the era they live in. -
Depeche Mode. "Everything Counts." Construction Time Again, Mute Records, 1983. Image Source: www.upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/Depeche_Mode_Everything_Counts.jpg. British electronic band Depeche Mode's 1983 song "Everything Counts" featured ambient and atmospheric electronic music combined with socially conscious lyrics criticizing the consumerist ideals of the 1980s in contrast to rampant poverty and inequality. -
Kelly, Lee. Akbar's Garden. 1984, The University of Oregon at Eugene. www.library.uoregon.edu/guides/architecture/oregon/xakbar. Akbar's Garden is an aluminum structure created by sculptor Lee Kelly in 1984 that was later placed at the University of Oregon at Eugene in 2002. The sculptor is designed to represent the 16th-century Indian ruler of the same name. The inexpensive aluminum materials are decidedly Postmodern since the imitation's subject was royal and grand. -
Image source: www.artnet.com/artists/patrick-nagel/. Patrick Nagel was a pop artist that drew inspiration from both the Art Deco period and the contemporary work of Japanese artists in the 1980s highlighting an angular and sleek depiction of aesthetic beauty in both male and female subjects. The pop art sensibilities of the 1980s symbolized the more decadent aspects of 1980s culture. -
Image source: www.i1.wp.com/archeyes.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Norton-house-residence-frank-gehry-venice-beach-LA-ArchEyes-front-view.jpg?ssl=1. The Norton House in Venice Beach, California was designed by Frank Gehry and personifies the concave and futuristic design patterns of the 1980s aesthetic in architecture. -
Gabriel, Peter. Birdy: Music From the Film by Peter Gabriel. Geffen Records, 1984. Image source: www.upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b1/Pgbirdy.jpg The spellbinding moods created through this album's instrumentals are cold and sparse enough to define Neo-expressionism, but Schopenhauer's traditionalist view of the emotional power gathered from music is in full force in each track. -
Image source: https://www.artsy.net/artist-series/andy-warhol-reigning-queens. Pop artist Andy Warhol created a screenprint of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in 1985. The print depicts the monarch in Warhol'd trademark glossy and illuminating style. The rough, almost garish image of the Queen is characteristic of Neo-expressionist subjectivity that creates a memorable image when combined with Warhol's pop art approach. -
Image source: www.//variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/a-ha-take-on-me-video.png. The music video for the song "Take on Me" by the band a-ha is one of the most defining pop artworks of the decade largely for its unique blending of animation with live-action. The effect is both surreal and purely pop art in its effect. -
Image source: www.upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/14/Lessthan01st1.png/220px-Lessthan01st1.png. Brett Easton Ellis' debut novel blended a satirical view of teenaged Generation X standing in the shadow of conformed baby boomer parents in the MTV generation. The novel's prose is fast-paced and highly visual in description, much like a music video. -
Image source: www.upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0c/Rabbit_%281986%29_by_Jeff_Koons.jpg/300px-Rabbit_%281986%29_by_Jeff_Koons.jpg. Jeff Koon's stainless steel sculpture "Rabbit" is an example of the more avant-garde sensibilities seen during the Neo-expressionism of the 1980s. It reminds me of a futuristic evolution of Heidegger's position on aesthetic beauty as a bridge between "the world" and "the Earth." -
Image source: www.cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1057/4964/products/blue-velvet-vintage-movie-poster-original-german-a0-33x46-7578.jpg?v=1535849174. The secondary film poster released for David Lynch's 1986 surrealist film "Blue Velvet" depicts images from the film that align with avant-garde and surrealist underpinnings of 1980s Neo-expressionist art. -
Image source: www.si.edu/sites/default/files/newsdesk/photos/aids-quilt.jpg. The AIDS Memorial Quilt was an idea conceived by LGBT activist Cleve Jones in 1987. Jones along with numerous volunteers created a memorial of patchwork names and symbols for those who had died of AIDS and to thereby help people understand the devastating impact of the disease. -
Image source: www.//www.sartle.com/media/artwork/red-room-keith-haring.jpg Keith Haring, along with Jean-Michel Basquiat, was a pioneer of both 1980s pop art and Neoexpressionism. This painting represents more of Haring's surrealist tendencies as the ultimate subjectivity hallmarks of Neoexpressionism allow ultimate subjectivity for the viewer to decipher the artwork's meaning. -
Image source: www.jeffwidener.com/i.php?/000/462/012,medium_large.1574719238.jpg. When we look back at the image of "Tank Man" during the Tiananmen Square Massacre in China in 1989, we see a brave man who stood in front of the Chinese tanks and was likely executed; however, for one brief second during that moment, a photographer caught his courageous act. Photography allows us as a collective society to visually inspect the past to better inform an imperfect present.
