Come as You Are

Come as You Are: Art of the 1990s is the first major museum survey to historicize art made in the United States during this pivotal decade. Showcasing approximately sixty-five works by forty-five artists, the book includes installations, paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, video, sound, and digital art. Come as You Are offers an overview of art made in the United States between 1989 and 2001, a period bookended by two indelible events: the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11. The book is organized around three principal themes--the “identity politics” debates, the digital revolution, and globalization; its title refers to the 1992 song by Nirvana and to the issues of identity that were complicated by effects of new technologies and global migration. All the artists in the exhibition made their initial entry into the art historical discourse during the 1990s, and they reflect the increasingly heterogeneous nature of the art world during this time, when many women artists and artists of color attained unprecedented prominence. Contributors include Huey Copeland, Jennifer González, Suzanne Hudson, Joan Kee, Frances Jacobus-Parker, Kris Paulsen, Paulina Pobocha, and John Tain.

Published in association with the Montclair Art Museum

Alexandra Schwartz is the founding curator of contemporary art at the Montclair Art Museum. Previously she was a curator at the Museum of Modern Art. She is author of Ed Ruscha's Los Angeles.

Foreword (Lora S. Urbanelli)

Lenders to the Exhibition

Chaotic Input: Art in the United States, 1989–2001 (Alexandra Schwartz)
Unfinished Business as Usual: African American Artists, New York Museums, and the 1990s
(Huey Copeland)
Costume: Come as You Aren’t (Jennifer A. Gonza´lez)
After Endgame: American Painting in the 1990s (Suzanne Hudson)
As the World Turns in 1990s’ America (Joan Kee)
Ill Communication: Anxiety and Identity in 1990s’ Net Art (Kris Paulsen)
Event Horizons: Gabriel Orozco and the 1990s (Paulina Pobocha)
A Place to Call Home: Artists In and Out of Los Angeles, 1989–2001 (John Tain)

Plates
1989–1993
1994–1997
1998–2001 (Alexandra Schwartz)

Selected Chronology: Art, Culture, and Society in the 1990s (Frances Jacobus-Parker)
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments (Alexandra Schwartz)