Jennifer Bartlett and Edna Andrade

Delirious: Art at the Limits of Reason, 1950–1980

Curated by Kelly Baum at the Met Breuer

"Delirious times demand delirious art, or so this exhibition will propose. The years between 1950 and 1980 were beset by upheaval. Around the globe, military conflict proliferated and social and political unrest flared. Disenchantment with an oppressive rationalism mounted, as did a corollary interest in fantastic, hallucinatory experiences. Artists responded to these developments by incorporating absurdity, disorder, nonsense, disorientation, and repetition into their work. In the process, they destabilize space and perception, give form to extreme mental, emotional, and physical states, and derange otherwise logical structures and techniques."