| Sentimentality has been dismissed for decades as a contemptible and invalid sensibility in art. However, certain artists in the late 1980s and 1990s began infusing their art with characteristically sentimental feelings, ushering in a phenomenon of renewed emotional resonance, thus renovating sentimentality in contemporary art. Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Jim Hodges are two artists whose art embodies certain aspects of sentimentality. Sentimentality is not restricted to this moment in art and undergoes a transformation in the 2000s, manifesting in the work of Lily van der Stokker and Ragnar Kjartansson. This thesis strives to constructively and thoughtfully track the emergence and revitalization of sentimentality in contemporary art. It is the endeavor of this thesis to analyze the fraught history of sentimentality and explore its current iteration, with the aim of reinstating sentimentality as a justifiable attribute in art. |
