Not Just For Laughs: The Art of Subversion
Not Just For Laughs: The Art of Subversion
Exhibitions
Not Just For Laughs: The Art of Subversion
November 21 1981 – January 21 1982
“Not Just For Laughs: The Art of Subversion” consisted of works in various media that used paradox, exaggeration, outrage, incongruity, surprise, subversion, and/or false logic as basic formal means. The laughter provoked by these works was used to attack existing cultural stereotypes. The work was generally unfashionable and unpretentious, did not represent a particular school of thought or a specific art movement, and was about everything but art issues.
The basic element in the work featured in “Not Just For Laughs” was humor. Many of the artists in the exhibition were iconoclasts in both their work and their lives. They seemed uninterested in the status quo and their work was frequently, according to Marcia Tucker, “sarcastic, ludicrous, outrageous, biting, improbable, silly, critical, nasty, and occasionally tasteless; it is also very funny.”
The basic element in the work featured in “Not Just For Laughs” was humor. Many of the artists in the exhibition were iconoclasts in both their work and their lives. They seemed uninterested in the status quo and their work was frequently, according to Marcia Tucker, “sarcastic, ludicrous, outrageous, biting, improbable, silly, critical, nasty, and occasionally tasteless; it is also very funny.”
November 21 1981 – January 21 1982
Thematic exhibitions
Main Gallery
New Museum Curator
