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THE 1980'S: AN INTERNET CONFERENCE
October
31 - November 13, 2005
Moderated by Maurice Berger, Senior Fellow, The Vera List Center for Art
& Politics, The New School and Curator, Center for Art & Visual Culture,
University of Maryland Baltimore County
The 1980s: An Internet Conference explored an extraordinary period of change
in American art and life. During this period, American politics and culture
underwent dramatic shifts. The election of Ronald Reagan brought about profound
changes in Federal policies. And a range of political and cultural
groups-crossing all ideologies-emerged as a powerful force in the nation.
The cultural response to these social changes, especially in the arts, was
both intense and varied. The 1980s also saw the full flowering of
multiculturalism in arts and society, the freer and broader expressions of
various ethnic, racial, and sexual groups often excluded from the mainstream.
During this period, the so-called "culture wars" also came to full fruition.
The 1980s: An Internet Conference addressed a range of questions central to
this extraordinary moment in American art, politics, and ideas:
[1] Why and how did the "multiculturalism" of the period emerge in the 1980s?
What was its relationship to the civil rights, feminist, and gay and lesbian
rights movements that emerged in the mid-20th century as well as the so-called
"pluralist" trend of the 1970s?
[2] To what extent did the modern day "culture wars" begin in the 1980s and
what is its continuing effect today?
[3] Did painting die as a relevant artistic medium in the 1980s, as some
critics argued at the time? To what extent did photography and other means of
mechanical reproduction supplant it? What role did the growing importance of
photography play in the "death of painting" argument, and how did photographers
contribute to or position themselves within it?
[4] How did new methodologies in criticism, art history, and cultural
writing-including structuralism, post-structuralism, neo-Marxism, feminism, and
sub-alternist and gay and lesbian studies-change the nature and style of
cultural writing in the United States?
[5] What of the rise of "alternative" and community-based art institutions
and activist art groups (such as the Guerilla Girls and Gran Fury) in this
period?
[6] To what extent did the "center" of the American art world shift from SoHo
to the East Village and to other cities, such as Los Angles, Boston, and
Philadelphia?
[7] What is the importance and legacy of the East Village scene as well as
the rise of artistic communities outside of New York on American art and ideas?
[8] What was the impact of AIDS on the art and culture of the United
States?