Adam Lehrer for S Magazine, 2018
The late 1990s was the last era in which a cohesive
art scene, with all its attendant radicalism, bohemian
intrigue and debauchery, formed in downtown New
York. It was just before the Giuliani/Bloomberg
renovation was “complete.” That era of the city’s
bohemia was as legendary for its drug fueled
abandon (and the untimely deaths of some of its
brightest stars, such as the late, great Dash Snow) as
it was for producing some of the most famous and
financially successful artists of the last 25 years (after
all, it’s not just art that collectors buy, it’s the myth of
the artist their buying art by).
This dense mythology around an “art scene” can
bring the artist opportunities of course, but it can
also be limiting in the long run (one need to only
read Barthes’ Mythologies to comprehend the
problematic nature of socially created mythology). In
fact, it’s very hard to look at the recent work by these
artists without comparing it or even diminishing it
against the work made in their youths. Ryan
Mcginley, for example, has emerged as one of the
world’s most famous fashion and fine art
photographers with his color blasted, technically
accomplished photos of youths and celebs against
nature. Nevertheless, it is his early work, the grainy
and reckless photos of Dash Snow, Dan Colen, Jack
Walls, and others, that he is still best remembered
for. Hanna Liden, another artist of the same moment,
is now creating work that exceeds her earlier efforts
in both conceptual sophistication and technical skill.
