Tabboo!

This painting named “Untitled” (1982), part of a collection called Tabboo! by Stephen Tashjian at the Club 57 exhibit at MOMA caught my eye as I walked past it. The painting seems roughly done yet full of emotion. The jagged brush strokes influence the eerie and dark tone of the painting; as the mouth seems to be painted in a way that makes it look like the mouth is bleeding, the eyes look bloodshot, and dark rings are formed around the eyes of the person in the painting. The extremely warm color palette used and the disturbing image portrayed makes the painting almost unpleasant to look at. However, what really stands out to me was the name of the collection, Tabboo!, as it captures the essence of the entire exhibit. Everything in the Club 57 exhibit was taboo. The taboo issues and artworks of the 1970s-80s flowed throughout the exhibit, representing topics such as the counterculture, sex, and the LGBT community. Like the Tabboo! painting by Stephen Tashjian, other emotional and outlandish art was shown that portrayed deep social issues but also served to make the viewer uncomfortable and think about the topic/issue at hand, such as the art created during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. These abstract pieces were infused with emotion and it was apparent they most likely had great significance to the artist. The odd choice in colors and peculiar representation of people throughout the exhibit are a representation of how what was considered “taboo” was now becoming normalized in several communities, as many artists pushed past the limit of what was viewed as normal in society and began expressing themselves based off their passions revolving around certain issues at hand. These painting are a reflection of how the 1970s-80s were a time of creative expression, an expression that refused to conform to any social standard and embodied the taboo nature of not only the art but the mindsets of those involved in the countercultures of the 1970s-80s.