Signs of the Times

1996

Signs of the Times gathers over forty prints from the Museum's permanent collection. Primarily created during the 1960s and 1970s, these works reflect a period when many artists were reacting against the emotional content of Abstract Expressionism from the previous decades. These younger artists sought a more "objective" approach to art making. Feeling that art had become too subjective, they replaced gestural abstractions with familiar, and sometimes blunt, images from the real world. Automobiles, architecture, interiors, and advertising, all find their way into these prints. Likewise, single words or phrases are isolated and treated as independent forms. Yet, while many of the pictures reflect the barrage of the media, they may also contain personal references for the artist. In this new sort of expression, rooted in representation, pictures and words become signs of the contemporary culture.