Andreas Gursky “Paris Montparnasse”,1993. Image from bbc.co.uk
A new area was introduced at this year’s Frieze Art Fair in London, as Geneva-based curator Nicolas Trembley placed special attention on an era of TLC, europop and raving with The Nineties section. Tapping into society’s current obsession with all things pre-Y2K, galleries were given the task of highlighting key creatives from the seminal period in contemporary art. Some of these artists have since retired or passed, while others continue to produce a steady stream of works.
Following the wave of Nineties nostalgia, here we highlight 10 other important artists to gain prominence during the decade, in addition to our YBA special.
Maurizio Cattelan. Working is a Bad Job, 1992. Image from artsalesindex.artinfo.com
Maurizio Cattelan
Notorious for his seamless blend of art and humour, Italian-born Maurizio Cattelan is contemporary art’s most satirical sculptor. For the 1993 Venice Biennale, the artist sold his space to perfume brand Schiaparelli due to the immense anxiety he felt during the creative process. Entitled “Working Is a Bad Job”, the work raised questions of commerce and art, with critics labelling the gesture an act of cynicism.
Wolfgang Tillmans, Daniel Buchholz exhibition, 1992. Image from anothermag.com
Wolfgang Tillmans
When Wolfgang Tillmans exhibited his very first show in 1993 at Köln’s Galerie Buchholz, this marked the beginning of a very long professional relationship between the photographer and the multi-locale art space. In a room of 9 sqm, the artist presented a series of zoomed-in portraits in black and white as well as a selection of colour photographs. The German photographer documented the decade like no one else. He shot London’s and Berlin’s underground techno and rave scenes in the early ’90s as well as the personalities of the era including Tony Blair and Chloë Sevigny. To this day, Tillmans is still represented by Buchholz, with the artist’s most recent show “Studio” presented during the 2016 Berlin Gallery Weekend.
Carsten Höller’s “Double Slide” Image from wikimedia.org
Carsten Höller
Carsten Höller’s immersive works utilise fantastical elements such as carousels, slides and light installations in an effort to play with patrons’ senses of perception. In 1993, the artist joined Cattelan in the Venice exhibition “Aperto 93”, a show which positioned Höller for a successful career that has allowed the artist to show everywhere from London’s Tate Modern to Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof.
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled 1992 (Free). Image from kurimanzutto.com
Rirkrit Tiravanija
Incorporating his Thai background into the piece presented at Venice’s Aperto 93, Rirkrit Tiravanija exhibited an artwork that references Thailand’s culinary practice of meal sharing. “Untitled 1993 (Cure)” saw the artist cooking traditional Thai soups inside a tea tent. The work aimed to reformulate conceptions of art, with particular emphasis on the important question of when something actually becomes “art” – a fervent topic of the decade.
Richard Billingham “Ray’s a Laugh”. Image from americansuburbx.com
Richard Billingham
In the 1990s, Richard Billingham photographed his parents in a series that eventually became “Ray’s a Laugh”. The intimate project revealed the alcoholism of his father as well as his mother’s tendency to hoard pets and cheap tchotchkes. Billingham chose to shoot the series on the cheapest film available as a reflection of the family’s deep level of poverty. Further, he utilised an especially sharp flash in order to accurately portray the intense reality.
Andreas Gursky”99 Cent”, 1999. Image from matheamillman.wordpress.com
Andreas Gursky
The large-scale works of Andreas Gursky are a testament to the Nineties – a decade in which consumerism reached an all time high and just before America’s post-millennial economic crash. Colour, repetition and size all create a dizzying effect, with his work “99 cent” serving as commentary on the age of globalisation.
Daniel Joseph Martinez “Museum Tags Second Movement Overture or Overture” kadist.tumblr.com
Daniel Joseph Martinez
During the Nineties, artists increasingly explored themes of personal identity in their works. American multimedia creative Daniel Joseph Martinez used art to challenge issues such as democracy and societal power. His work entitled “Museum Tags Second Movement Overture or Overture” is a piece which focuses on these themes, with Martinez turning the Whitney Museum’s admission tags into signs that read “I can’t imagine ever wanting to be white.”
Douglas Gordon “Pretty Much Every Film and Video work from about 1992” Image from artfund.org
Douglas Gordon
One of the most prominent artists to work under the Relational Aesthetics movement, Douglas Gordon’s multi-sensory installations played with viewers expectations versus reality. French curator Nicolas Bourriaud described Gordon’s and other Relational Aesthetics artists’ works as focusing on “the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space.”
Mike Kelley “Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites 1991-1999” Image from theredlist.com
Mike Kelley
Incorporating punk rock and other pop culture influences into his art, Mike Kelly spent the Nineties creating art that merged the high brow with the low. The artist has collaborated with many artists such as Paul McCarthy and Tony Oursler, as well as the seminal New York noise-rock band Sonic Youth.
Vanessa Beecroft “Vb 35”, 1998. Image from nytimes.com
Vanessa Beecroft
During an era when supermodels ruled the world, Vanessa Beecroft used highly-choreographed performances to explore society’s obsession with physical perfection and the pressures that women face in particular. Following her rise to the top, the artist has since become a major collaborative force with musician Kanye West.