ple monitors in dark spaces in order to intensify the
viewer’s experience. Tony Oursler’s videos pro-
jected faces on soft sculpture dummies with which
audio and random noise were incorporated. His
themes questioned the toxic effects of technology
and substance abuse.
In photography, Philip-Lorca diCorcia examined
street life in big cities such as Los Angeles, New York,
and Berlin. His photographs sometimes left much to
chance, when his subjects did not realize they were
being photographed, although he would start with
an abstract idea of what he was looking for. Tina Bar-
ney’s photography had an anthropological and so-
ciological slant. She took portrait photography of
her subjects, trying not to stage or plan her photo-
graphs too much, and liked to capture the tensions
of the relationships between people as well as the de-
tails of their surroundings. Canadian artist Jeff Wall
placed photographic images in backlit boxes while
exploring social and political themes. He con-
structed photos that seemed to reflect everyday life
but manipulated them digitally in order to confuse
viewers and to make them look twice. Having stud-
ied art history, Wall also referenced well-known
works of art in his work. Influenced by Wall, Gregory
Crewdson’s photography was also much influenced
by film. He worked with a production crew of about
sixty people and staged photographs that captured
narrative tableaux of the psychological tensions and
bizarre happenings of American suburbia. In the
1990’s, Catherine Opie often portrayed herself and
her transgendered friends in Los Angeles. In her
self-portraits, she portrayed herself in a variety of
guises that were meant to shock by addressing gen-
der and sexual issues, including that of herself
dressed up as a butch man or in sadomasochistic
dress. William Wegman became widely known in the
1990’s for photographs of his Weimaraner dogs. The
dogs Fay Ray and her puppies became subjects, and
he created children’s books with the dogs as the
characters in stories such as “Cinderella” and “Little
Red Riding Hood.”
Impact Art in the 1990’s in America cannot be or-
ganized into art movements, as it was diverse, indi-
vidualistic, and pluralistic. Voices of previously
marginalized “others” were frequently voiced
through art created by women, Latinos, African
Americans, and homosexuals. Identity exhibitions
at museums reflected this trend in the art world. The
1993 Whitney Biennial explored the issues of race,
sex, otherness, and difference mostly through instal-
lation art, video art, and photography. The exhibi-
tions ofBad Girlsat the New Museum of Contempo-
rary Art in New York andBlack Maleat the Whitney
Museum garnered attention. At the same time,
painting, installation, and video art continued to ad-
dress formalist themes involving material, shape,
and color. This artistic environment would set pre-
cedents for artists to continue into the twenty-first
century.Further Reading
Bright, Susan.Art Photography Now. New York: Aper-
ture, 2005. An excellent overview of photography
of the 1990’s.
Cohalan, Mary Lou, and William V. Ganis. “Abstract
Painting in the 1990’s.”Art Criticism14, no. 2
(1999): 4-20. Excellent survey of abstract painting.
Cullum, Jerry. “Stereotype this!”Art papers22, no. 6
(1998): 16-21. Discusses the controversial issue of
race in art.
Godoeke, Jason, Nathan Japel, and Sandra Skurvi-
daite. “Figurative Painting in the 1990’s.”Art Criti-
cism14.2 (1999): 21-33. Excellent overview.
Hopkins, David.After Modern Art, 1945-2000. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Includes a
chapter on the 1990’s that is general and short
but a good overview.
Hunter, Sam, John Jacobus, and Daniel Wheeler.
Modern Art. Rev. ed. New York: Harry N. Abrams,- Includes a chapter with an excellent com-
prehensive survey of the art of the 1990’s.
Keeblatt, Norman. “The Other Edge: Representing
Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality.”Issues in Archi-
tecture, Art, and Design5, no. 1 (1997-1998): 22-36.
Discusses issues of race and gender in art.
Mayer, Marc.Being and Time: The Emergence of Video
Projection. Buffalo, N.Y.: Buffalo Fine Arts Acad-
emy, 1996. Good exhibition catalog on the topic
of video art.
Somers, Lynn, Bluewater Avery, and Jason Paradis.
“From Corporeal Bodies to Mechanical Ma-
chines: Navigating the Spectacle of American In-
stallation in the 1990’s.”Art Criticism14, no. 2
(1999): 53-73. Very good overview.
Taylor, Sue. “Lessons of Hysteria: Louise Bourgeois
in the Nineties.”New Art Examiner25 (1997-1998):
24-29. Many of the artists mentioned have excel-
lent Web sites that are wonderful resources for in-
The Nineties in America Art movements 57