MARK DION

With the ’80s came a profound sense that the avant-garde was finally dead. I think postmodernism is a real thing. We had enough contact with artists of the ’70s to know they were the last generation to believe the art they were making was new. That’s why the turn to painting was so shocking to a lot of them. For artists of the previous generation, ideas like “who did what first” were still important. Who could give a damn today? Nothing feels more irrelevant. For the generations that came after the “Pictures” people, the idea of producing “the new art” was never an issue.

—As told to Gregory Williams