With artists like Cindy Sherman, Julian Schnabel and Jeff Koons making big waves, the 1980s were an explosively creative time for art. It was a fractious period, too, as artists and critics espoused or decried neo-Marxist theories as the art market boomed.
Lots of less famous artists had supporting roles in the tumultuous drama of New York art back then. “Tseng Kwong Chi: Performing for the Camera,” an entertaining and edifying exhibition at the Grey Art Gallery, surveys the brief but prolific 10-year career of one of the decade’s more scintillating but lesser-known players. Presenting more than 80 photo-based pieces, the show was organized by Amy Brandt, curator of modern and contemporary Art at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Va., where it will be shown in August.
In 1979 Tseng Kwong Chi began to create his most memorable works: two photographic series, “East Meets West” and its follow-up, “Expeditionary Series,” in which he appeared in dark glasses and a Zhongshan suit, the uniform favored by Mao Zedong. Thus outfitted, he posed in front of famous monuments like Mount Rushmore and the Eiffel Tower and natural wonders like Niagara Falls and the Canadian Rockies.
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