From our newsletter archives. Originally published October 21, 2021.
The 1988 announcement card (above) from a Metro Pictures exhibition featuring eleven successful women artists illustrates the gender diversification that was slowly taking hold in the art world in the 1980s. This demographic shift was especially noticeable amongst the artists associated with the then still unnamed “Pictures Generation” art movement which was Metro Pictures’ specialty.
The new movement was named and defined in 2009 by the Metropolitan Museum’s groundbreaking exhibition The Pictures Generation 1974-1984. Curator Douglas Eklund noted in the catalogue how as early as 1978 the moniker “The Theoretical Girls” was applied to the young women artists engaged in this cerebral, post-conceptual direction. While the Pictures Generation movement was far from exclusively female, Eklund appropriately contrasts it to Neo-Expressionism, a contemporaneous movement almost totally dominated by male artists.
Gallery 98 features here a selection of art ephemera spotlighting the women of the Pictures Generation. You can see a fuller sampling of the movement in our special section devoted to the Pictures Generation.
Cindy Sherman
Bacardi Art Gallery, Cindy Sherman, Untitled Works, 10-Page Exhibition Booklet, 1985. Size: 8 x 8 Inches — Booklet Available
Sarah Charlesworth
Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Sarah Charlesworth, Stills, Card, 1980. Size: 5 x 9 Inches
— Card Available
Laurie Simmons
P.S. 1, Laurie Simmons, Photographs, Card, 1979. Size: 6 x 9 Inches — Card Available
Louise Lawler
MOMA, Louise Lawler, Enough., Two Folded Pamphlets, 1987. Red Pamphlet Size: 8.5 x 11 Inches. White Pamphlet Size: 12 x 11 Inches. — Pamphlets Available
Gretchen Bender
Nature Morte, Gretchen Bender, Memory Management, Card, 1986. Size: 5.25 x 4 Inches
— Card Available
Annette Lemieux
Ringling Museum of Art, Annette Lemieux, The Appearance of Sound, Card, 1989. Size: 9 x 6.25 Inches — Card Available
Barbara Bloom
Haags Gemeentemuseum (NL), Barbara Bloom, Card, 1987. Size: 4.25 x 6 Inches
— Card Available
Barbara Kruger
Mary Boone Gallery, Barbara Kruger, Jam Life Into Death, Folded Card, 1989. Size: 6 x 8.25 Inches
Sherrie Levine
