American art from the Whitney Museum, 1975-1995

"America 1975-1995, loved and hated by artists who each in their own style have questioned the American dream; the crisis of consciousness which moved them during the Vietnam war; their critical stance regarding mass culture, the violence of racial conflict, and the inherent contradiction of the social system; the difficult relations they perceived between the individual and society. This volume presents the work of those artists who, by their efforts, influenced and altered the principal trends in American art over the last twenty years. The selection is made from among the most significant works in the permanent collection of New York's Whitney Museum of American Art, considered the most important museum in the world dedicated to American art of this century. The book begins with an overview of works by Helen Frankenthaler, Ellsworth Kelly, Franz Kline, Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, and Frank Stella. It continues with the Minimal Art of Sol LeWitt and Carl Andre, the radical abstraction of Agnes Martin, winner of the Leone d'Oro at the 47th Venice Biennale, the self portraits photographed by Cindy Sherman, the video-installations of Tony Oursler, the combined materials work on ecological disaster by Ashley Bickerton, the underground graffiti of Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Salle's strip, and the vacuum cleaner idol of Jeff Koons. Then, Peter Halley, Keith Haring, Mike Kelley, Catherine Opie, Dennis Oppenheim, to name just a few more."--Jacket.