How Does '80s Art Look Now?

In certain quarters, two events in 1987 brought the decade to a symbolic close. Warhol's death in February deprived the scene of its presiding elder, the white-wigged spirit of affectless salesmanship. The collapse of the stock market eight months later gradually squeezed off buyers. By the following August, Basquiat was dead as well. How will the future regard him and his brethren? "Dying young is the easy way out," says Longo. "It's much harder to keep your edge and keep it going." It pays to keep in mind something Zhou Enlai once said. On the bicentennial of the French Revolution, someone asked the erstwhile Chinese Communist Party leader what he thought its legacy would be. His answer: "It's too soon to tell." He should have been an art critic. --With reporting by Amy Lennard Goehner