{"title":"Alexander Bigman","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlexander Bigman’s works explore the intricate relationship between images and history, revealing how visual culture shapes our understanding of the past. Readers can expect insightful analysis that blends art criticism with cultural theory, offering a fresh perspective on the ways pictures influence collective memory.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRooted in \u003cem\u003eArts \u0026amp; Culture\u003c\/em\u003e, Bigman’s writing is both intellectually engaging and accessible, appealing to those fascinated by the power of imagery and its role in society. His thoughtful approach invites reflection on how art and history intertwine to narrate human experience.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"pictures-and-the-past-by-alexander-bigman-9780226833071","title":"Pictures and the Past","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA fresh take on the group of artists known as the \u003cem\u003ePictures\u003c\/em\u003e Generation, reinterpreting their work as haunted by the history of fascism, the threat of its return, and the effects of its recurring representation in postwar American culture.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe artists of the \u003cem\u003ePictures\u003c\/em\u003e Generation, converging on New York City in the late 1970s, indelibly changed the shape of American art. Rebelling against abstraction, they borrowed liberally from the aesthetics of mass media and sometimes the work of other artists. It has long been thought that the group's main contribution was to upend received conceptions of authorial originality. In \u003cem\u003ePictures and the Past\u003c\/em\u003e, however, art critic and historian Alexander Bigman shows that there is more to this moment than just the advent of appropriation art. He presents us with a bold new interpretation of the \u003cem\u003ePictures\u003c\/em\u003e group's most significant work, in particular its recurring evocations of fascist iconography.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the wake of the original \u003cem\u003ePictures\u003c\/em\u003e show, curated by Douglas Crimp in 1977, artists such as Sarah Charlesworth, Jack Goldstein, Troy Brauntuch, Robert Longo, and Gretchen Bender raised pressing questions about what it means to perceive the world historically in a society saturated by images. Bigman argues that their references to past cataclysms—to the violence wrought by authoritarianism and totalitarianism—represent not only a coded form of political commentary about the 1980s but also a piercing reflection on the nature of collective memory. Throughout, Bigman situates their work within a larger cultural context including parallel trends in music, fashion, cinema, and literature. \u003cem\u003ePictures and the Past\u003c\/em\u003e probes the shifting relationships between art, popular culture, memory, and politics in the 1970s and '80s, examining how the spectre of fascism loomed for artists then—and the ways it still looms for us today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47431962034412,"sku":"9780226833071","price":71.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780226833071.jpg?v=1774557037"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/alexander-bigman.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}