Contemporary Art The works in this case are representative of the Museum’s continued commitment to collecting and exhibiting art of the recent past. Most of the objects here were the gift of Jack and Maureen Rounick, who had personal and professional ties to the artists emerging from New York City’s East Village scene in the 1980s. At that time, this neglected neighborhood was rife with poverty, crime, and artists. Since then it has become a textbook case of the gentrification that invariably claims artists’ bohemias. The artists themselves were implicated in this process of commercialization, translating forms of sub-cultural protest like graffiti into a more benign and saleable art, and making fashionable the aesthetic of ‘down-and-out.’ The complicated relationship between art and commerce is reflected in the objects assembled here, which frequently derive both their material form and subject matter from contemporary consumer culture. Following a long tradition in modern art, they challenge us to reconsider where we draw the line between high and low culture, the fine and popular arts, and art and non-art.
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