ACADEMIA Letters

Artists Responding to cultural and political shifts

contemporary art from 1980.
Mary Raum, US Naval War College

Modern artists are considered by critics as responding in various ways to cultural and po-
litical shifts, but is what they have presented art? Are viewers being hustled or shammed?
Art has devolved into microcosmic and individualized statements about the negative events
occurring in the world. There does not always need to be a personal, political, cultural, psy-
chological, psychiatric issue to make art. Nor does it always need to fit glocal or in situ frame-
works.[i] Renderings are becoming supernumerary to the point of boredom and abstractions
obtuse.Pinnacle status is given to junk and trash, found objects, and object trouve. [ii] Appro-
priated art has also gained celebrity status.[iii]Jeff Koons is a good example. Are his Rabbit,
Puppy, Balloon Dog, Play-Doh Sculpture, Michael Jackson or, Ballerina “kitsch?” or art?
[iv] Koons is more despised than celebrated and the art community can’t entirely agree if his
presentations are “art,” “lousy art,” “non-art” “in poor taste” or “vulgar.” The Spectator has
defined him as “a slick brand manager rather than a tormented creative soul.” [v] Are Chris-
tian Boltanski’s Autel de Lyucee Chases with its juvenile wiring and cheap tin boxes, Cory
Arcangel’s Snowbunny/Lakes or, Marc Quinn’s Self, using frozen human bloodof similar ilk?
[vi] Koons may be the best example of the self-promoting egomaniac and publicity hound that
makes up the roll call of many modern artists considered to be presenting on a continuum of
scammers, cleverly ironic or, sincere.[vii]
Two artists of good faith in all the tumultuous modern art world who seem genuine in
their reasoning for creating art with social meaning are Robert Gober’s domestic and familiar
object sculptures and the conceptual art of Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Two of their installments,
Gober’s Untitled leg with a candle, 1991,and Gonzalez-Torres Untitled pile of multicolored
candy, 1991 appeared as 196,000 cases of AIDS were diagnosed in the US and just four years
prior, to the US Center for Disease Control report of the uptick of an 89% infection increase in

Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Mary Raum, raummaryphd@gmail.com

Citation: Raum, M. (2021). Artists Responding to cultural and political shifts contemporary art from 1980.
Academia Letters, Article 2367. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2367.

1
the population. [viii] To bring attention to this generation-defining experience was courageous
by these two artists as AIDS illnesses resulted in a level of stigmatization unseen since the
1960s and the American Civil Rights Movement based was led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Both of these pieces are simple in design, Gober’s a mix of phallic symbolism, vigil about life
wasting away and eventual mortality.[ix] Gober’s sculpture was directed at AIDS more largely
and generically than Gonzalez-Torres. Gonzalez-Torres’s pile of candies was individually
wrapped in multicolor cellophane and purposefully weighed 175 pounds, the same weight as
Ross Laycock, his partner who was dying of AIDS the same year the sculpture of confections
was created. A deep personal symbolism to a health crisis and a person’s intense loss of
another is in evidence. Gonzalez-Torres’s candies were described by reviewer Lauren Tucker
as “cannibalistic” and “religious” and that “by taking a piece, you are taking Ross with you,
thus making him omnipresent.” [x] Gober’s lifeless wax leg was created to suggest a vigil,
time passing and running out on those that had become ill with AIDS.[xi]

References
[i] Steven Felix-Jager, Art Theory for a Global Pluralistic Age The Glocal Artist, Palgrave
Macmillan, 2020eBook ISBN978-3-030-29706-0. “What is In situ In Art and Why is it
So Important,” What is ’In Situ’ - in art and why is it so important? | ArtMumble.com
ArtMumble.com April 24, 2021. Accessed 4/24/2021. Terry Barrett, Making Art Form
and Meaning, McGraw Hill Education, January 15, 2010.

[ii] “Art Term, Found Object,” Found object Art Term | Tate accessed 4/24/2021

[iii] Artsy Editors, “The Art of Copying: Ten Masters of Appropriation,” Feb 11, 2014, The
Art of Copying: Ten Masters of Appropriation - Artsy accessed 4/24/2021

[iv] Merritt Kinkade, “The Kitsch Controversy,” May 11, 2016, THE KITSCH CONTRO-
VERSY Kinkade Family Foundation accessed 4/24/2021 “Why Does the World Hate Jeff
Koons? (video) Huff Post, Why Does The Art World Hate Jeff Koons? | HuffPost 2 mins
11 sec. Roberta Smith, “Stop Hating Jeff Koons Why “Rabbit,” the perfect art for the
roaring mid-80s, continues to speak to us,” Critics Notebook New York Times, May 17,
2019. Stop Hating Jeff Koons - The New York Times (nytimes.com) accessed 4/24/2021.

[v] Carlotta Marelli, Elle Décor, “Who is Jeff Koons, the World’s Most expensive Artist?”
May 16, 2021.

Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Mary Raum, raummaryphd@gmail.com

Citation: Raum, M. (2021). Artists Responding to cultural and political shifts contemporary art from 1980.
Academia Letters, Article 2367. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2367.

2
[vi] Andrew Johnson, “Contemporary Art is a Fraud, Says Top Dealer, the soaring prices
and their subsequent collapse are proof to some experts that the works had a price, but not
much value. Feb 22, 2009, Independent, 22 February 2009.

[vii] Merritt Kinkade, “The Kitsch Controversy,” May 11, 2016, THE KITSCH CONTRO-
VERSY Kinkade Family Foundation accessed 4/24/2021 “Why Does the World Hate Jeff
Koons? (video) Huff Post, Why Does The Art World Hate Jeff Koons? | HuffPost 2 mins 11
sec. Roberta Smith, “Stop Hating Jeff Koons Why “Rabbit,” the perfect art for the roaring
mid-80s, continues to speak to us,” Critics Notebook New York Times, May 17, 2019. Stop
Hating Jeff Koons - The New York Times (nytimes.com) accessed 4/24/2021. Lecture,
Smithsonian Art Series, presented by Nancy G. Heller, “Understanding Contemporary
Art, From Pop to Pluralism,” April 21, 2021

[viii] “A Timeline of HIV and AIDS,” HIV.gov, A Timeline of HIV and AIDS | HIV.gov
accessed 4.24/2021.

[ix] Whitney Museum of American Art, Robert Gober, Untitled, Robert Gober | Untitled |
Whitney Museum of American Art accessed 4/24/2021Classification: Sculpture Medium:
Wax, cloth, wood, leather and human hair Dimensions:Overall: 12 5/16 × 10 1/4 × 37
1/2in. (31.3 × 26 × 95.3 cm

[x] Jennifer Tucker, “Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) (Felix Gonzalez-Torre’s Most Rec-
ognizable Works,” Sartle, 7/21/2021. Lauren Weinberg, “Art Institute Candy Sculpture,
What’s Up With That? Time Out Chicago. March 12, 2013.

[xi] Whitney Museum of American Art, Robert Gober, 1991, Robert Gober | Untitled | Whit-
ney Museum of American Art accessed 4/25/2021

Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Mary Raum, raummaryphd@gmail.com

Citation: Raum, M. (2021). Artists Responding to cultural and political shifts contemporary art from 1980.
Academia Letters, Article 2367. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2367.