New exhibit at MCA explores polarizing ’80s

Like, the 1980s were totally awesome. We wanted our MTV. We tuned into "Three's Company" and "Diff'rent Strokes" and forked over $3 to see "Porky's" at the movies.

Michael Jackson was the bomb, topping the charts with "Thriller." Yeah, the Bears crushed the New England Patriots 46–10 in Super Bowl XX. Oh, dude, the Berlin Wall fell!

On the other hand, Reaganomics and the AIDS crisis were bummers. And good luck cracking that glass ceiling, girlfriend.

Life was a pop–culture playground in the ’80s, with up–and–coming artists seesawing between fluffy froth and grim realities, an imbalance evidenced by a new exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art.

Bowing Feb. 11, "This Will Have Been: Art, Love, & Politics in the 1980s" spotlights more than 150 works that represent the diversity and complexity of art produced during this tumultuous era. The roster includes luminaries as Cindy Sherman, Julian Schnabel, Robert Mapplethorpe and Jeff Koons. Featured Chicago talents include multimedia artist Tony Tasset and artist–writer–filmmaker Gregg Bordowitz. The show runs through June 3.

Museums tend to focus on ’60s and ’70s art, guest curator Helen Molesworth noted.

"No one was tackling the ’80s, so I decided to take it on," said Molesworth, chief curator of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. "I like showing museum–goers that art is impacted by recent history."

An attempt to organize the paintings, sculptures and installations in chronological order resulted in a jumble that "didn't seem to capture the spirit of the ’80s," Molesworth. So she focused on concepts, successfully grouping pieces into four categories: The End Is Near; Gender Trouble; Democracy; and Desire and Longing.

The latter proved a universal theme, spanning personal and political statements. Mapplethorpe's homoerotic studies and Deborah Bright's glam eye–candy snaps became kissing cousins.

In the wake of the Me–Decade ’70s, artists broadened their exploration of their yearnings, Molesworth said. They began championing ambitions both private and public, "whether it was a desire for gay and lesbian equality, or the desire for artists of color to be accepted as equals, or whether it was the desire of women to further the quest for an equitable society in terms of gender."

"The End is Near" predictably showcases bleaker works. An upbeat exception is "AIDS Wallpaper" by the Canadian artists' collective General Idea.

The room–size installation spoofs Robert Indian's famous 1967 "Love" screenprint and stamp), replacing the letters L–O–V–E with A–I–D–S. The group designed the wallpaper as a reminder that many people lead normal lives after their diagnosis.

The MCA is offering a 300–page catalogue for the exhibit, and has organized lectures by participating artists, gallery tours and other programs to expand on show themes.