“Your History Is Not Our History” Opens at Haunch of Venison
By Elizabeth Thompson
Installing “Your History is Not Our History: New York in the 1980s” at Haunch of Venison gallery felt like Christmas morning for artist Richard Phillips, who organized the show with artist David Salle. “The crates came and it was was like opening present after present after present,” Phillips said at the show’s opening Friday night, as guests including Julian Schnabel, Francesco Clemente, Jeffrey Deitch, Jerry Saltz, Cynthia Rowley, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, and James Frey, took in Prince’s and Salle’s re-telling of the ’80s art world in New York City, a time period during which they believe artists’ work is often mis-remembered as being oppositional of one another and representative of exclusive critical positions.
Instead, via pieces by Salle, Schnabel, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sherrie Levine, Jeff Koons, and Eric Fischl among other luminaries from the ’80s, “Your History is Not Our History,” highlights the shared attributes of works from the time period, in this case, the sound rejection of authority and a sense of radicalism Phillips said was palpable at gallery shows.