Comeback

Everything returns. Nostalgia increases especially in uncertain times of upheaval. A romanticized history has been superimposed on the present in advertising and fashion, and art history has also made a return in art. While the appropriation art of the 1980s exposed the strategies of modern image culture with ironic distance, a freer handling of the past is found today. In painterly, photographic, filmic, and performative appropriations, artists are updating the “mnemic energies” (Aby Warburg) of historical works for a fresh understanding of the present. Artists: Philip Akkerman, Irene Andessner, José Manuel Ballester, Glenn Brown, Leo Caillard, Wim Delvoye, Slawomir Elsner, Hans Peter Feldmann, Jochen Flinzer, Christian Jankowski, Liane Lang, Liza Lou, Pia Maria Martin, Brigitte Maria Mayer, Jean-Luc Moerman, Chantal Michel, Yasumasa Morimura, Ciprian Muresan, Agathe Pitié, Ged Quinn, Antoine Roegiers, Markus Schinwald, Cindy Sherman, Yinka Shonibare, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Kehinde Wiley