From left to right: Vito Acconci, Philip Guston, Lynda Benglis
In contrast to Tyler Green, I don’t care if Jerry Saltz’s NYC art canon cheats a little and includes a piece made in Los Angeles or names Kara Walker a key figure, even though she’d adopted an Angeleno aesthetic. The list covers the last 40 years of artmaking, and while imperfect, I’m pleased to say I don’t have too many problems with the names Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Philip Guston, Sol LeWitt, Lynda Benglis, Gordon Matta-Clark, Jennifer Bartlett, Cindy Sherman, Keith Haring, David Hammons, Andy Warhol, Andres Serrano, Cady Noland, Jeff Koons, and Kara Walker. Matthew Barney’s Cremaster series is a notable exclusion here, particularly given the support the critic has given him over the last 10 or more years. His absence can be seen as one more sign of the artist’s passing popularity. Also, while it’s a little early, arguably Nam June Paik’s use of a Sony Portapak to shoot Pope Paul VI’s procession through New York City in 1965 should have made that list, since it marks, for many, the beginning of video art. Nam June Paik also coined the phrase “information superhighway” in the 1970′s, and was an important figure to early net artists.
