Lectures at the MFA - Varieties of Postmodernism

Whereas the modernist art of Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore was grounded in attachment to nature, a quest for authenticity and originality, and belief in making art for art’s sake, postmodernists were suspicious of those ideals. Looking at the work of a cohort that includes Cindy Sherman, David Salle, Robert Longo, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Jonathan Borofsky, Haim Steinbach, Allan McCollum, and Ellen Brooks, this lecture focuses on artists who cast an ironic eye on kitsch, commodities, and cultural clichés conveyed by commercial media. We also attend to the fertile legacies of postmodernism’s forerunners, including Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp, and Robert Rauschenberg. Jonathan Ribner, director of graduate admissions; History of Art and Architecture, associate professor, Late-18th- and 19th-Century European Art, Boston University Wednesday, December 4, 2024 Supported by the MFA Associates, MFA Senior Associates, and Weekend Guides in honor of Barbara Martin.