MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

The two exhibitions, which took place in New York three years apart, are often regarded together, as both were heavily orientated towards the tendency described as ‘identity politics’. Organised in the midst of the so-called ‘cultural wars’, The Decade Show and the 1993 Whitney Biennial in particular, are considered as the first major art exhibitions in the US to give visibility to artists from marginalised groups, whilst also presenting to the wider public such issues as the AIDS crisis, race, class, gender, imperialism and poverty, among others. In the case of The Decade Show, its representational strategy based on the contrasting of artworks of each minoritised group with that of mainstream (Anglo-Saxon/Western) artists promoted the tendency for the exaltation of differences as a mode of practice, since well-established in the US. The exhibitions received a maelstrom of criticism. Some critics felt there was a reductionist approach by the curators of the Whitney Biennial, with the complexity of some artworks reduced to the representation of marginality in essentialist terms. Perceived by some as vehemently political, the displays were described as overly-didactic, and the organisers were accused of pandering to political correctness and sacrificing artistic quality in favour of multiculturalism and identity politics. Although controversial, these exhibitions – and the Whitney Biennial to the greater extent – have had considerable influence on the politics of representation within the artistic sphere.