Christian Caliandro: Why Art Styles Ended After the 1970s

In a December 2021 essay on Artribune, Christian Caliandro argues that the era of dominant artistic styles ended between the late 1970s and early 1980s, replaced by a coexistence of approaches. He traces a lineage from Abstract Expressionism through Pop Art, Minimalism, Arte Povera, Conceptual Art, and Land Art, noting that each period previously had a single avant-garde style. After the 1970s, however, multiple styles became admissible simultaneously, signaling a break in the modernist narrative of stylistic evolution. Caliandro draws parallels with music subcultures, observing that from the mid-to-late 1990s, genres like bebop, punk, techno, and Britpop gave way to stylistic mixing within individual artists' works, anticipating postmodern eclecticism. He cites precursors such as David Bowie, Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, and Dadaists Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, and Kurt Schwitters. The essay references key texts: Claire Bishop's "Artificial Hells" (2015), Nicolas Bourriaud's "Relational Aesthetics" (2010), Miwon Kwon's "One Place After Another" (2020), Carla Lonzi's "Self-Portrait" (2021), Alessandra Pioselli's "Art in Urban Space" (2015), and Hito Steyerl's "Duty Free Art" (2018). It also quotes Iosif Brodskij's "From Exile" (1988) and mentions Francis Picabia's 1921 work "L'oeil cacodylate". Caliandro teaches contemporary art history at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze and serves on the scientific committee of Symbola Foundation.