Art at the end of the 20th Century – Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art

A key to our understanding of art in the last decades of the 20th century would be “a boom in the field of artistic creation”. The diversity of several, often disparate, movements is accompanied by another key characteristic: the abolition of the traditional boundaries which divided the arts from life. Contrary to the purity and autonomy of modern art, post-modern art indulges in all kinds of cross-breeding, often resulting in hybrid forms. The appropriation of everyday materials, especially fetish items of material culture, abolishes the traditional role of art, that is, idealization. Contemporary art is a tool for raising awareness of the contemporary issues.
In recent years, art has become particularly sensitive to social, racial and environmental issues, often focusing on civil rights, mass culture and the media, which it often uses for its own ends.
Social groups considered marginal until recently, such as blacks, Native Americans, migrants, women, have now produced some of the leading figures in contemporary American art.
Organised by the Whitney Museum of American Art, this imposing exhibition, whose European tour began from the National Gallery of Greece, showcased all aspects of this exciting reality through representative works and famous artists.

Exhibition Curator: Angela Tamvaki, Curator at the National Gallery of Greece

Sponsor: Philip Morris