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Inspired by philosophers such as Roland Barthes, who had questioned the very idea of originality and authenticity in his manifesto The Death of the Author, this loose-knit group of artists set out to make art that analysed their relationship with popular culture and the mass media.

They worked in photography, film, video and performance, creating art that used the same mechanisms of seduction and desire that played upon them. Cindy Sherman took photographs of herself dressed as B-movie heroines; Richard Prince deconstructed mass consumerism with his pictures of cowboys taken from adverts.

In 1977 an exhibition called Pictures Generation featuring many of these artists was held at the Artist’s Space in New York.