First There Was Zombie Formalism—Now There’s Zombie Figuration

In 1978, New Museum founder Marcia Tucker put on an exhibition called “‘Bad’ Painting,” comprising figurative works that she insisted were actually good. In paintings by artists like William N. Copley, Joan Brown, and Neil Jenney bizarre scenes prevailed, in which long-limbed figures meandered through cities; the work was intentionally raunchy, and put sexual mores to the test. At the time, Abstract Expressionism, with its bravado brushwork, was still considered the parag