Flashback: Revisiting The Art of the Eighties

by Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, John Armleder (Artist), Thomas Ruff (Photographer)

The last decade of the Cold War era left a legacy greater than legwarmers. Flashback takes a close and critical look at what many see as the decade of painting. Or the decade of the art-market boom. Or as Cindy Sherman once called it, the decade of media criticism. Is it any wonder that what emerges from the diversity of artistic approaches in Flashback is an extraordinarily heterogeneous time, and that in the end the book raises the question of whether it is even appropriate to view art of the 1980s as a category apart? Flashback includes works from some 30 artists, including Francesco Clemente, Robert Gober, Martin Kippenberger, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2006

About the author

Benjamin Heinz-Dieter Buchloh is a German art historian. He is currently the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Modern Art in the History of Art and Architecture department at Harvard University.