ABSTRACT
By the end of the 1980s the question of whether painting was dead or alive ceased to be debated in the art world, except by the October coterie. Art of the end of the 1980s took three diverse directions. The first extended available twentieth-century styles in personal ways, disregarding social issues. The second dealt directly with newly urgent social problems, and the third was aptly labeled abject or pathetic art. Extending available styles had become too traditional and expected an approach to generate much comment in the art world, although a number of individual artists did. On the other hand, abject and socially conscious tendencies were much discussed. Commodity artists and the neogeos achieved art-world recognition in 1986. They were the last group of artists to command art-world attention in the eighties. Multiculturalism was only one of the social issues that engaged growing numbers of artists, both in their art and their activities as citizens.
