Food, "Inflammatory Essay" (from Documenta 1982)
View Similar Items
Jenny HolzerFood, "Inflammatory Essay" (from Documenta 1982)1982
1982
About the Item
- Creator:Jenny Holzer (1950, American)
- Creation Year:1982
- Dimensions:Height: 17 in (43.18 cm)Width: 17 in (43.18 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Very good condition Detailed condition report by request Note: Essays were photographed in plastic protective sleeves Literature: "Jenny Holzer" by Diane Waldman 1989, pg. 58-59.
- Gallery Location:Toronto, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: 10-201stDibs: LU21526939342
Jenny Holzer
Known for taking art out of the traditional “white cube” of galleries and museums and onto the streets, Jenny Holzer is one of the most potent feminist Neo-Conceptual artists of the 20th century. Her most iconic work critiques the information age and consumerism by reclaiming its primary media — conventional print billboards, storefront posters and LED signs.
“I used language because I wanted to offer content that people — not necessarily art people — could understand,” the Ohio-born Holzer told Interview magazine. She received her MFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design, where her work was influenced by Abstract Expressionism. It was while in the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art that Holzer became inspired to work at the intersection of public art and language.
In the late 1970s, after becoming an active participant in the downtown Manhattan artist collective Colab, which included Tom Otterness and Christy Rupp, Holzer began to create her legendary “Truisms” series. Printing anonymous one-line aphorisms in bold and italicized text on broadsheets, she pasted them up in public spaces all over New York City. The “Truisms” are provocative in questioning how we receive and process information. The work elicits debate and represents a range of perspectives. In an era that saw the rise of street art and graffiti, Holzer’s pithy word art would also find viewers by way of T-shirts, stickers and park benches, into which her slogans were carved.
Holzer’s more combative “Inflammatory Essays” (1979–82) took the form of mass-produced posters on colored paper — each featuring paragraphs as compared to the punch-line structure of “Truisms.” These touched on subjects such as violence, misogyny, power structures and consumerism, all of which have continued to be central in her work.
Starting in 1982 as part of a Public Art Fund project, Holzer projected “Protect me from what I want” and other “Truisms” on the Spectacolor board, a large computerized light signboard in New York City’s Times Square. Her “Abuse of power comes as no surprise,” which has appeared on T-shirts as part of the series, has taken on new life in an increasingly politically divided America.
Just as it did in the 1970s, the forcefulness of her work continues to make both viewers and the art world stop and pay attention. She has had solo exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Tate Modern in London and elsewhere. She has also created permanent installations including the New York City AIDS Memorial. A 2014 show at New York’s Cheim & Read featured oil-on-linen canvases based on declassified government files pertaining to detainees from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Find Jenny Holzer prints and sculptures on 1stDibs.
- Victorian GirlBy Joyce WielandLocated in Toronto, OntarioJoyce Wieland (1931-1998) was one of the most accomplished and versatile Canadian artists of the 20th century. Emerging on the Toronto art scene at the beginning of the 1960s, over t...Category
Late 20th Century Feminist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Ink
- Crash ComicBy Joyce WielandLocated in Toronto, OntarioJoyce Wieland (1931-1998) was one of the most accomplished and versatile Canadian artists of the 20th century. Emerging on the Toronto art scene at the beginning of the 1960s, over t...Category
Late 20th Century Feminist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
MaterialsPencil, Paper
- EnterBy Joyce WielandLocated in Toronto, OntarioJoyce Wieland (1931-1998) is one of the most accomplished and versatile Canadian artists. She achieved a level of commercial and critical success in her lifetime that was exceptional...Category
Late 20th Century Feminist Nude Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Pastel, Graphite
$1,750 - Inflammatory Essay (from Documenta 1982)By Jenny HolzerLocated in Toronto, OntarioJenny Holzer is one of the most important and original artists of the 20th century. Her body of work, with its emphasis on text, is provocative and occasionally frightening, manipulating the language of folk wisdom, pop culture, and government slogan to produce a commentary on global issues including power structures, gender struggle, economics, voting, and warfare. Holzer's iconic "Inflammatory Essays", produced between 1979 and 1982, were first pasted on walls throughout heavily populated metro areas including New York, and shortly after in other cities. Unsigned and commercially produced, they subverted the conventions of advertising, graffiti, and public art. Each essay was in a different eye-catching color to maximize viewers' attention. It was also helpful when one Essay replaced an older one. The texts were derived from her childhood interest in rapturous writings. Holzer tried to emulate a similar style for her essays, yet borrowed from political theorists (notably Mao, Lenin, and Emma Goldman...Category
1980s Conceptual Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph, Offset
- Half Dead, "Inflammatory Essay" (from Documenta 1982)By Jenny HolzerLocated in Toronto, OntarioJenny Holzer is one of the most important and original artists of the 20th century. Her body of work, with its emphasis on text, is provocative and occasionally frightening, manipulating the language of folk wisdom, pop culture, and government slogan to produce a commentary on global issues including power structures, gender struggle, economics, voting, and warfare. Holzer's iconic "Inflammatory Essays", produced between 1979 and 1982, were first pasted on walls throughout heavily populated metro areas including New York, and shortly after in other cities. Unsigned and commercially produced, they subverted the conventions of advertising, graffiti, and public art. Each essay was in a different eye-catching color to maximize viewers' attention. It was also helpful when one Essay replaced an older one. The texts were derived from her childhood interest in rapturous writings. Holzer tried to emulate a similar style for her essays, yet borrowed from political theorists (notably Mao, Lenin, and Emma Goldman...Category
1980s Conceptual Prints and Multiples
MaterialsOffset, Lithograph
- Greengages a la Warhol, Wild Raspberries, USA, 1959By Andy WarholLocated in Toronto, OntarioAndy Warhol is arguably the most important American artist of the 20th century. In the 1950s, he was an in-demand and celebrated illustrator working for New York's toniest publications (like Harper's Bazaar) and elegant shops (such as Bonwit Teller) in addition to many smaller independent fashion companies. Throughout the decade, Warhol received numerous awards and accolades for his illustrations - yet he found it difficult to surpass the designation of “commercial artist”. It wasn’t until the mid-1950s when Warhol completed a successful campaign for shoe retailer Miller & Sons, that he was finally granted widespread recognition for his renderings. "Greengages a la Warhol," is a delightful paradigm from this era. This whimsical lithograph is an output from Warhol's self-published cookbook, "Wild Raspberries...Category
1950s American Modern Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph, Offset
- Judy Chicago poster (Hand signed and inscribed)By Judy ChicagoLocated in New York, NYAccidents, Injuries and other Calamities poster Judy Chicago (Hand signed and inscribed), 1988 Offset lithograph on thin board (signed and inscribed by Judy Chicago) 26 × 20 1/4 inch...Category
1980s Feminist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Offset, Pencil
- Supreme Nan Goldin skateboard deck (Nan as a Dominatrix)By Nan GoldinLocated in NEW YORK, NYNan Goldin Supreme Skateboard Deck: 'Nan as a Dominatrix, Cambridge MA' (1978/2018): Published in 2018 by Supreme New York Features Nan Goldin printed signature on verso From a sold...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Feminist Nude Photography
MaterialsWood, Offset
- If I Could Just Go Back & Start AgainBy Tracey EminLocated in London, GBOffset lithograph on thin white wove paper Signed by the artist in pencil, recto. Published by White Cube (London). 59 x 84 cm This piece was chosen by Emin in a 2009 Guardian ne...Category
2010s Feminist Nude Prints
MaterialsOffset
- The Small Hours -- Letterpress, Lithograph, Text Art by Louise BourgeoisBy Louise BourgeoisLocated in London, GBThe Hour Is Devoted to Revenge, 1999 Louise Bourgeois Letterpress and lithograph in colours, on two sheets of smooth wove Arches Signed and inscribed A/P An artist’s proof aside fro...Category
1990s Feminist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- The Reticent Child (Ex Libris) -- Print, Text, Feminist Art by Louise BourgeoisBy Louise BourgeoisLocated in London, GBThe Reticent Child (Ex Libris), 2005 Louise Bourgeois Lithograph with embossing in colours, on wove Signed and numbered from the edition of 300 Printed by Martin Kätelhön, Cologne P...Category
Early 2000s Feminist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Repairs in the Sky -- Letterpress, Lithograph, Text Art by Louise BourgeoisBy Louise BourgeoisLocated in London, GBRepairs in the Sky, 1999 Louise Bourgeois Letterpress and lithograph in colours, on two sheets of smooth wove paper Signed and numbered from the edition of 25 (plus 14 A.P.) From Wh...Category
1990s Feminist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
