MTV 1988

Editor: This is "MTV," a 1988 acrylic on canvas painting by Mark Kostabi. The title definitely caught my eye – given the date, you can’t help but think about the music television network. The faceless figures are unsettling and that colour palette— electric, cold— it feels distinctly 80s. What does this image evoke for you? Curator: "Unsettling" is spot on! It gives me the same eerie, disconnected feeling I get from some early MTV music videos— a sense of performative coolness masking…what exactly? What's happening beneath that detached surface? Notice how Kostabi flattens space, rendering those architectural forms into stark, almost stage-like, sets. Do you see any potential connection between this artificiality and the culture that MTV fostered? Editor: Definitely! It feels like the painting is critiquing manufactured image – how image dominates experience. Is that smaller figure on the couch resigned or simply bored, do you think? Curator: Precisely. And to your question, I think “resigned” better captures that figure’s withdrawn posture. The work taps into Neo-Expressionism. Do you see this work's visual language borrowing from street and graffiti art, aligning it with urban sensibilities? Editor: For sure, the bold colors and simplified figures speak to street art, also the edgy commentary on consumerism is present in both styles. Curator: Right. And, for me, it highlights that late 20th-century obsession with visibility and consumption, reflected in a somewhat sinister and detached emotional landscape. What remains with you the most? Editor: Definitely the color contrast. That interplay between the vivid figures and the somewhat lifeless interior says so much about the performative vs. genuine feelings, as the TV was the mirror. Curator: Well said! Seeing how those elements connect—color, subject, composition, cultural context—deepens my appreciation for its commentary on that particular cultural moment.