Just Past: The Contemporary in MOCA’s Permanent Collection, 1975-96

Just Past featured works created during the previous twenty years, emphasizing recent works by young artists to highlight the museum's function as a collecting institution that places even the most current works within a historical context to examine the continuity of ideas and art-historical categories. Included in the exhibition were Vito Acconci's Under-History Lessons (1976-87), Barbara Bloom's The Reign of Narcissism (1988-89), Felix Gonzales-Torres's Untitled (Portrait of MOCA) (1994), Renée Green's Import/ Export Funk Office (1992-93), Margaret Honda's League (1992), Mike Kelley's Pay for Your Pleasure (1988), Cady Noland's Misc. Spill (1990), and Stephen Prina's Exquisite Corpse: The Complete Paintings of Manet 26 of 556 Pivones dans un Bock (Peonies in a Glass Tankard, With Necklace), 1861-62, Private Collection, London (1989), among others. 1970s figuration was represented by the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Susan Rothenberg, David Salle, and Julian Schnabel. Issues of appropriation and originality were raised by the works of John Baldessari, Sarah Charlesworth, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, and Cindy Sherman. Bridging the worlds of visual art, design, and craft was the work of Sam Durant, Jim Isermann, and Jorge Pardo. Also represented were Jennifer Steinkamp and Pae White, while recent acquisitions by Jim Hodges, Ik-Joong Kang, Jeff Koons, Matthew McCaslin, and Georgina Starr were also on view.

Just Past: The Contemporary in MOCA's Permanent Collection, 1975-96 was organized by Ann Goldstein, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.