Tag: Plugged In: Art and Electric Light

Grouping art by medium is always too obvious, even when the medium in question has the pizzazz of electric light. This exhibition focuses on the years 1964-1970 but does not, otherwise, establish a clear throughline. Experiments with electric light were, indeed, popular in this period but included disparate tendencies within Pop Art, Minimalism, Neo-Dada, and early installation art. These artists all thought of electric light as one material among many. By essentializing the medium, it fails to explore the underlying threads of influence or even explain why so many artists, during this period, chose to “plug in.”