In his new book 100 Works of Art That Will Define Our Age, poet and cultural critic Kelly Grovier dares to predict which works of contemporary art from the 1990s to today will stand the test of time – which will still be looked at, talked about, admired, or even lamented a century from now.
Grovier joins artist Cornelia Parker to discuss the state of contemporary art and those works, including her own Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View 1991, that have come to be seen as celebrity artefacts, profoundly touching the public's consciousness. Included in Grovier's list of works is Parker's controversial sculptural installation Breathless 2001, a work consisting of fifty-four crushed brass wind instruments. This conversation explores the power of art to capture the triumphs and traumas, aspirations and anxieties of an age.
Kelly Grovier
is a poet and regular contributor on art to The Times Literary Supplement. In addition to his new survey of contemporary art, 100 Works of Art That Will Define Our Age (Thames & Hudson, 2013), his books include the popular social history The Gaol: The Story of Newgate, London's Most Notorious Prison, and two collections of poems: A lens in the palm (Carcanet, 2008) and The Sleepwalker at Sea (Carcanet, 2011).
Cornelia Parker
was born in Cheshire and studied at Wolverhampton Polytechnic and Reading University. She has had solo exhibitions around the world, including at Frith Street Gallery; the Serpentine Gallery; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; Galeria Civica d' Arte Moderna, Turin; Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart and Museo De Arte de Lima, Peru. Parker was shortlisted for the 1997 Turner Prize.
