Have you been to the Polk Museum of Art galleries recently? Come in to see our throwback exhibition: “Y2K: Art at the Turn of the 21st Century from the Permanent Collection.”
As the 1990s drew to a close, people around the world began to imagine — and grow concerned about — what the onset of a new millennium might hold in store. The turn of any century is often heralded as a marker of historical change, albeit an artificial, calendar-dictated moment of leaving behind the past and looking forward to modern transformations.
The art of this time serves as a window into the culture, anxieties, and concerns of Y2K. The works on display span the consequential period of 1998 to 2001, and, while most artists do not comment explicitly on the millennial change, their art is inseparable from the time in which they lived. Striving to produce meaningful art, artists, like everyone else in the late 1990s and early 2000s, grappled with a world on the cusp of great change and new realities, be they psychological, emotional, social, technological, or otherwise.
This exhibition may have you longing for the simplicity of the late 20th century. Come in now through August 28 to view the exhibition!