01American
Untitled
Jean-Michel Basquiat
1982 · Acrylic and oil paintstick on wood · USA
Neo-expressionism; SAMO graffiti roots; race, death, Black body; art world commodification
02American
Pink Panther
Jeff Koons
1988 · Glazed porcelain · USA
Neo-Pop; kitsch as fine art; appropriation; mass-produced image elevated to gallery object
03American
Untitled Film Still #21
Cindy Sherman
1978 · Gelatin silver print · USA
Feminist photography; constructed identity; the male gaze; artist as subject and object
04Latin American
Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)
Félix González-Torres
1991 · Candies, ideal weight 175 lbs. · Cuba/USA
AIDS crisis; participatory art; diminishing candy = body wasting; viewer complicit in loss
05American
Dancing at the Louvre (from The French Collection)
Faith Ringgold
1991 · Acrylic on canvas with pieced fabric border · USA
Story quilt; Black women in Western art history; quilt as feminist and African American tradition
06Indigenous
Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People)
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
1992 · Oil, paper collage on canvas · Native American (Salish/Métis), USA
Columbus quincentennial; treaty rights; Native mascot critique; land theft reframed
07Latin American
En la Barbería No Se Llora (No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop)
Pepón Osorio
1994 · Mixed-media installation · Puerto Rico/USA
Latino masculinity; community-based installation; kitsch and excess as cultural assertion
08Middle Eastern
Rebellious Silence (from Women of Allah series)
Shirin Neshat
1994 · Gelatin silver print with ink calligraphy · Iran/USA
Iranian identity post-revolution; veil as site of resistance; calligraphy as text and image
09Asian
A Book from the Sky (Tiānshu)
Xu Bing
1987–1991 · Hand-printed books and scrolls with invented characters · China
Post-Cultural Revolution China; language as power; 4,000 invented characters; unreadability = critique
10American
Darkytown Rebellion
Kara Walker
2001 · Cut paper and projection · USA
Slavery and race; silhouette tradition subverted; viewer's shadow merges with scenes; complicity
11African
Old Man's Cloth
El Anatsui
2003 · Aluminum bottle caps, copper wire · Ghana/Nigeria
Kente cloth reference; liquor bottle history = colonial trade; flexible sculpture; artist grants installation freedom
12European/British
The Swing (After Fragonard)
Yinka Shonibare
2001 · Fiberglass, Dutch wax fabric · Nigeria/UK
Rococo subversion; Dutch wax = "African" fabric with colonial origins; headless figure; identity and empire
13Asian
Pure Land
Mariko Mori
1996–1998 · Color photograph on glass · Japan
Buddhist Pure Land; digital fantasy; pop culture meets sacred tradition; artist as bodhisattva figure
14American
Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps
Kehinde Wiley
2005 · Oil on canvas · USA
Appropriation of Old Master sources; Black men in heroic roles; pattern/ornament subverts hierarchy
15African
Pisupo Lua Afe (Corned Beef 2000)
Michel Tuffery
1994 · Assemblage: flattened corned beef tins · Samoa/New Zealand
Pacific diaspora; colonial food dependency; canned beef replacing traditional food systems; bull from tins
16Indigenous
Everywhen (The Pleiades in Hand)
Judy Watson
1993 · Pigment and pastel on canvas · Aboriginal Australian
Aboriginal dreaming; country as living map; Pleiades star cluster in Aboriginal astronomy; soak/stain technique
17Transnational
The Gates
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
2005 · 7,503 saffron fabric panels, Central Park, New York · Bulgaria/Morocco/USA
Environmental/land art; temporary installation; process as art; public engagement; 26-year proposal history