Art and its Double might be the first occasion an American art movement was officially launched in Spain. Its impetus came when the Director of Exhibitions for "la Caixa,", Maria de Corral, invited Dan Cameron to prepare an an exhibition examining the most recent development in the East Village art scene.

 

The selection of artists in Art and its Double represented an abrupt stylistic shift away from the graffiti-inspired and expressionist painting of the early 1980s, and towards the cooler, more Pop-influenced aesthetic represented by Ashley Bickerton, Robert Gober, Jeff Koons, Peter Halley and Haim Steinbach. To contextualize this generation in the Pictures movement of the late 1970s, the photo-based artists Sarah Charlesworth, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine and Cindy Sherman were also included, making it clear that this new development had its direct antecedents in the very recent past. Other artists participating in the exhibition were Jenny Holzer, Tim Rollins & KOS, Matt Mullican, Peter Schuyff and Philip Taaffe.

 

Two editions of the 150-page catalog, in Catalan and Spanish, were published for the exhibition, with an introductory text by Dan Cameron.