The (moving) pictures generation

"Downtown New York in the late 1970s was filled with a vibrant energy, and with young artists making groundbreaking work. Many, like Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, and Kathryn Bigelow, have become legendary. The (Moving) Pictures Generation is a book about artists who were trained in art schools rather than film schools, but whose fascination was with the "movies." Their art was rife with cinematic reference, not only through "appropriation," as often noted, but by something deeper. Cinematic time, as duration and history, was engaged, as well as body movement, as gesture and pose, and narrative as cultural meaning. Andy Warhol in the 1960s had addressed similar issues. "--

"Beginning in the late 1970s, a number of visual artists in downtown New York City returned to an exploration of the cinematic. They engaged cinematic movement, time, and the body in their work, and did so across mediums, utilizing not only film, but sculpture, drawing, photography, and performance. The cinematic impulse was evidenced in the high art of Jack Goldstein, Robert Longo, and Cindy Sherman, and in the film practices of "No Wave" filmmakers Amos Poe and Vivienne Dick, and the feature films of Kathryn Bigelow. Vera Dika considers the work within a greater cultural context and probes for a deeper understanding of the practice"--