Book relating to an exhibition, 1987
Published by: Chatto & Windus Ltd
Year published: 1987
Number of pages: 256
ISBN: 0 7011 3086 5

A4 portrait hard cover publication/gloss colour printed flysheet/grey cover/256 pages/monochrome text with full colour illustrations

Book produced to accompany a television series (on Channel 4) and a touring exhibition of the same name - launched in 1987. This project surveyed cultural production (mainly focusing on visual art) over the last ten years, using 26 artists to reflect on the wider aspects of art production, namely its relationship to politics and social change. This viewpoint (as presented by the curator, Sandy Nairne) can be seen as the precursor to New Labour’s strategy of using art and artists within policy making and delivery.

Title: State of the Art
Subtitle: Ideas and images in the 1980’s
Author: Sandy Nairne in collaboration with Geoff Dunlop and John Wyver
Photographs by Geoff Dunlop
Published by Chatto & Windus Ltd in collaboration with Channel Four Television Company Limited © 1987 by Illuminations (Television) Ltd

Front cover: Mary Kelly; Michael Nelson Tjakamarra. Deutschland, Deutschland by Calos Maria Mariani; Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Running Man by Jonathan Borofsky; Untitled no.153 by Cindy Sherman.
Back cover: Hammering Man by Jonathan Borofsky at the Minneapolis Institute of Art 1985

Contents:
Acknowledgements - 7
Preface - 9
Introduction - 13
1) History, The Modern and the Postmodern: Carlo Maria Marinani; Anselm Keifer; Jàrg Immendorff; Jonathan Borofsky - 19
2) Value, Commodity and Criticism: The Deutsche Bank; Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne; Mary Boone Gallery, New York; Douglas S.Cramer; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Artforum; Battery Park City, New York; Mary Miss - 58
3) Imagination, Creativity and Work: Joseph Beuys; Anthony Gormley; Miriam Cahn; Howard Hodgkin; Susan Hiller - 88
4) Sexuality, Image and Identity: Cindy Sherman; Alexis Hunter; Eric Fischl; Mary Kelly; Barbara Kruger - 127
5) Politics, Intervention and Representation: Leon Golub; Hans Haake; Peter Dunn and Loraine Leeson: Docklands Community Poster Project; Victor Burgin; Terry Atkinson - 164
6) Identity, Culture and Power: The Biennale of Sidney; Michael Nelson Tjakamarra; Imants Tillers; The Elbow Room, London; Lubaina Himid; Donald Rodney; Sonya Boyce; Sutapa Biswas; Jean-Michel Basquiat; New York: Andy Warhol - 205
Notes on artists - 247
Further reading - 250
list of illustrations - 251
Index - 255

from the back leaf: “Sandy Nairne was born in 1953. After working at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, and the Tate Gallery, he was Director of Exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, until 1984. Sandy Nairne wrote State of the Art in collaboration with John Wyver, series producer of the Channel Four Television series, and with its producer/director, Geoff Dunlop, who also took the photographs for the book.”