Emotional blackmail

Tracing a tendency in contemporary art of the last decade away from the irony and cynicism that marked the 1980s and 1990s, this publication offers a sampling of complex works marked by what could be called “neo-sincerity.” Artists and writers look at how emotions are expressed and manipulated in the name of art, the emotional exchange between artist, collaborator and viewer, and the difficulty of expression and generation of emotion in contemporary visual art. Ranging from pop music, YouTube, teen culture and self-help, the inspirations for these works are straight from our multifarious mainstream culture.