''REALLIFE Magazine'' was a publication featuring written and visual material by and about young artists that was co-founded and published by artist Thomas Lawson and writer Susan Morgan between 1979 and 1994.Printed Matter
''REAL LIFE Magazine''
Retrieved January 14, 2018. It served as a clearing house for new ideas and examinations of mass media and art, while chronicling New York's developing postmodern alternative art scene. It was strongly associated with '' The Pictures Generation'' group of artists.Bovier, Lionel and Fabrice Stroun. "Introduction," ''Mining for Gold: Selected Writings (1979–1996)'', Zurich: JRP, Ringier, 2004.Rickey, Carrie. "Naïve Nouveau and Its Malcontents," ''Flash Art'', Summer 1980.Sandler, Irving. ''Art of the Postmodern Era: From the Late 1960s to the Early 1990s'', New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

Magazine

The magazine's first issue was made possible by a

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

grant in

art criticism Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art. Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. A goal of art criticism is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation but it is quest ...

, awarded to Lawson through

Artists Space Artists Space is a non-profit art gallery and arts organization first established at 155 Wooster Street in SoHo, Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1972 by Irving Sandler and Trudie Grace and funded by the New York State Council on the Arts ...

(New York). ''REALLIFE Magazine'' was based in New York and attentively addressed current art and its influences while continuously speculating about culture and questioning politics. Starting with a focus on the 'Pictures' artists - and an affinity with the world of TV, film, and popular culture - the magazine charted the rise of the

postmodernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...

and postfeminist debates before moving into more political issues, from

institutional critique In art, institutional critique is the systematic inquiry into the workings of art institutions, such as galleries and museums, and is most associated with the work of artists like Michael Asher (artist), Michael Asher, Marcel Broodthaers, Daniel B ...

and

hypertext Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typic ...

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

and the civil war in El Salvador. As the 1980s unraveled, and priorities and interests shifted in the art world, the magazine remained a forum for artists' opinions, providing exposure for those overlooked by the mainstream, and introducing the work of a new generation of practitioners. The wide range of featured artists included

Sherrie Levine Sherrie Levine (born 1947) is an American photographer, painter, and conceptual artist. Some of her work consists of exact photographic reproductions of the work of other photographers such as Walker Evans, Eliot Porter and Edward Weston. Ea ...

Félix González-Torres Félix González-Torres or Felix Gonzalez-Torres (November 26, 1957 – January 9, 1996) was a Cuban-born American Visual arts, visual artist. He lived and worked primarily in New York City between 1979 and 1995 after attending university in P ...

, Mike Kelley,

Dan Graham Daniel Graham (March 31, 1942 – February 19, 2022) was an American visual artist, writer, and curator in the writer-artist tradition. In addition to his visual works, he published a large array of critical and speculative writing that spanned ...

, Louise Lawler,

Joseph Nechvatal Joseph Nechvatal (born January 15, 1951) is an American post-conceptual digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom computer viruses. Life and work Joseph Nechva ...

Matt Mullican Matt Mullican (born September 18, 1951) is an American artist and educator. He is the child of artists Lee Mullican and Luchita Hurtado. Mullican lives and works in both Berlin and New York City. Early life and education Matt Mullican was bo ...

Jeff Wall Jeffrey Wall, Order of Canada, OC, Royal Society of Canada, RSA (born September 29, 1946) is a Canadian photographer. He is artist best known for his large-scale back-lit Cibachrome photographs and art history writing. Early in his career, he h ...

David Hammons David Hammons (born July 24, 1943) is an American artist, best known for his works in and around New York City and Los Angeles during the 1970s and 1980s. Early life David Hammons was born in 1943 in Springfield, Illinois, the youngest of ten ...

and

Critical Art Ensemble Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) is a collective of five tactical media practitioners of various specializations including computer graphics and web design, film/video, photography, text art, book art, and performance. For CAE, tactical media is situati ...

, among others.

Exhibition

In March 2007,

hosted the exhibition. Curated by Kate Fowle, the show looked at the 80s decade through the lens of this publication and its roster of contributors, including Richard Baim,

Eric Bogosian Eric Michael Bogosian (; born April 24, 1953) is an American actor, playwright, monologuist, novelist, and historian. Descended from Armenian-American immigrants, he grew up in Watertown and Woburn, Massachusetts, and attended the University ...

Glenn Branca Glenn Branca (October 6, 1948 – May 13, 2018) was an American avant-garde music, avant-garde composer, guitarist, and luthier. Known for his use of volume, scordatura, alternative guitar tunings, minimal music, repetition, drone (music), dronin ...

, Critical Art Ensemble, Jamie Davidovich, Jessica Diamond,

Mark Dion Mark Dion (born August 28, 1961) is an American conceptual artist best known for his use of scientific presentations in his installations. His work examines the manner in which prevalent ideologies and institutions influence our understanding ...

and Jason Simon, Jack Goldstein,

Kim Gordon Kim Althea Gordon (born April 28, 1953) is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known as the bassist, guitarist, and vocalist of alternative rock band Sonic Youth. Born in Rochester, New York, she was raised in Los Angeles, Califor ...

, Group Material, Hammons, Michael Hurson,

Ray Johnson Raymond Edward "Ray" Johnson (October 16, 1927 – January 13, 1995) was an American artist. Known primarily as a collagist and correspondence artist, he was a seminal figure in the history of Neo-Dada and early Pop art and was described as < ...

, Kelley,

Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her visual word art that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative ca ...

, Lawler, Levine,

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

Robert Longo Robert Longo (born January 7, 1953) is an American artist, filmmaker, photographer and musician. Longo became first well known in the 1980s for his ''Men in the Cities'' drawing and print series, which depict sharply dressed men and women writ ...

, Ken Lum,

Allan McCollum Allan McCollum (born 4 August 1944) is a contemporary American artist who lives and works in New York City. In 1975, his work was included in the Whitney Biennial, and he moved to New York City the same year. In the late 1970s, he became especial ...

, Paul McMahon, Mullican,

Adrian Piper Adrian Margaret Smith Piper (born September 20, 1948) is an American conceptual artist and Kantian philosopher. Her work addresses how and why those involved in more than one discipline may experience professional ostracism, otherness, racial ...

Richard Prince Richard Prince (born August 6, 1949) is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned. His image ''Untitled (Cowboy)'', a photographic reproduction of a photograph ...

, David Robbins,

Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...

, Michael Smith and

James Welling James Welling (born 1951 in Hartford, Connecticut) is an American artist, photographer and educator living in New York City. He attended Carnegie-Mellon University where he studied drawing with Gandy Brodie and at the University of Pittsburgh where ...

Book

The exhibition coincided with the publication ''REALLIFE Magazine: Selected Writings and Projects 1979-1994'', edited by Miriam Katzeff and published by

Primary Information Primary Information is a Brooklyn-based non-profit organization that publishes artist books, artists’ writings, re-publishes out-of-print art publications and limited art editions. History Formed in 2006, Primary Information was created to fo ...

(NY, 2007). With an introduction by Matthew Higgs, the anthology features writings and projects by Doug Ashford,

Jo Baer Josephine Gail Baer (née Kleinberg; August 7, 1929 – January 21, 2025) was an American painter associated with minimalist art. She began exhibiting her work at the Fischbach Gallery, New York, and other venues for contemporary art in the mid- ...

and Bruce Robbins, Judith Barry,

Dara Birnbaum Dara Nan Birnbaum (October 29, 1946 – May 2, 2025) was an American video and installation artist based in New York City. Birnbaum entered the nascent field of video art in the mid-to-late 1970s, challenging the gendered biases of the period ...

, Joseph Bishop, Bogosian,

Jennifer Bolande Jennifer Bolande (born 1957) is an American postconceptual artist.Ollman, Leah"Jennifer Bolande: Cut up the newspaper, and random connections make for some unexpected depth,"''Los Angeles Times'', December 15, 2018. Retrieved January 15, 2024.Ston ...

Derek Boshier Derek Boshier (19 June 1937 – 5 September 2024) was an English artist, among the first proponents of British pop art. Greene, Alison de Lima (2000). Texas: 150 Works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. New ...

, Jim Bradley, Elsa Bulgari,

Rhys Chatham Rhys Chatham (born September 19, 1952) is an American composer, guitarist, trumpet player, multi-instrumentalist (flutes in C, alto and bass, keyboard), primarily active in avant-garde and minimalist music. He is best known for his "guitar orche ...

, Dion, Spencer Finch, González-Torres, Gordon, Graham, Group Material, B.P. Gutfreund, The Holy Ghost Writers,

Kellie Jones Kellie Jones (born 1959) is an American art historian and curator. She is a Professor in Art History and Archaeology in African American Studies at Columbia University. She won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2016. In 2023, she was elected to the Amer ...

, Judith Kirshner, Kruger, Lawler, Lawson, Christine N. Lea, Levine, McCollum, McMahon, John Miller, Robert C. Morgan, Susan Morgan, David A. Muller, Mullican, Kathi Norklun, Piper, Richard Prince, Rex Reason, David Robbins, Walter Robinson, John Robert, Tim Rollins and K.O.S.,

Ed Ruscha Edward Joseph Ruscha IV (, ''roo-SHAY''; born December 16, 1937) is an American artist associated with the anti- pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography, and film. He is also noted for creating s ...

, Fulton Ryder, Grahame Shane, Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Howard Singerman, Smith and R. Sikoryak, Jana Sterbak, Josef Strau and Stephan Dillemuth, John Stezaker, Valentin Tatransky,

Bernard Tschumi Bernard Tschumi (born 25 January 1944 in Lausanne, Switzerland) is an architect, writer, and educator, commonly associated with deconstructivism. Son of the well-known Swiss architect Jean Tschumi and a French mother, Tschumi is a dual French ...

, John A. Walker, Wall, Joan Wallace and Geralyn Donohue, Welling, and Robin Winters.Michael Lobel, "Back to (Real) Life" ''Modern Painters'' 2007 (June) 57-58.

References

{{Reflist

External links

*
REALLIFE Magazine: Selected Writings and Projects 1979-1994
' Visual arts magazines published in the United States American art Magazines established in 1979 Magazines disestablished in 1994 Magazines published in New York City Non-profit organizations based in the United States Defunct magazines published in the United States