Jenny Holzer Art
American, b. 1950
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.
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Artist: Jenny Holzer
All Things Are Delicately Connected embroidered tea towel
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Washington , DC, DC
Contemplate this though provoking statement with this tea towel designed by Jenny Holzer. Each tea towel is embroidered in the UK and made from 100% organic ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Jenny Holzer Art
Materials
Cotton, Organic Material
Selection from Living 1980 -1982, Heliogravure, Text Art by Jenny Holzer
By Jenny Holzer
Located in London, GB
Selection from Living 1980 -1982, 1999
Jenny Holzer
Heliogravure, on Zerkall rag paper
Signed and numbered from the edition of 99
Plate: 37 × 55.5 cm (14.6 × 21.9 in)
Sheet: 44.5 ×...
Category
1990s Contemporary Jenny Holzer Art
Materials
Photogravure
USE WHAT IS DOMINANT IN A CULTURE TO CHANGE IT: Signed glass bowl Whitney Museum
By Jenny Holzer
Located in New York, NY
Jenny Holzer
USE WHAT IS DOMINANT IN A CULTURE TO CHANGE IT, 2003
Hand Blown Glass Bowl
4 × 10 × 10 inches
Edition 68/200
Signed and numbered 68/200 on the underside with Holzer's in...
Category
Early 2000s Conceptual Jenny Holzer Art
Materials
Blown Glass, Engraving
Half Dead, "Inflammatory Essay" (from Documenta 1982)
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Jenny 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 Jenny Holzer Art
Materials
Lithograph, Offset
Jenny Holzer, Inflammatory Essays 3 - LED Sculpture, Light Art, Text-based Art
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Hamburg, DE
Jenny Holzer (American, b. 1950)
Inflammatory Essays 3, 1982/2002
Medium: Electronic tri-color mini-LED panel, with anodized aluminium housing, incl. power adapter
Dimensions: 10.1 x...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Jenny Holzer Art
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LED Light
Jenny Holzer, AKA: Portfolio of 5 Etchings, Contemporary Art, Signed Print
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Hamburg, DE
Jenny Holzer (American, b. 1950)
AKA, 2006
Medium: Set of five etchings, on Magnani Pescia paper (with title page, sheets loose, in original black silk-covered portfolio case)
Dimens...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Jenny Holzer Art
Materials
Etching
End of the USA
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Jenny Holzer is one of the most important and original artists of the 20th century.
Her body of work, with an emphasis on text, is consistently provocative and occasionally frightening, manipulating the language of both pop culture and government slogan to produce commentary on global issues notably power structures 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 other cities.
Composed of anonymous statements, printed on friendly or calm colored papers, the statements were influenced by writings of major political figures such as Emma Goldman...
Category
1980s Conceptual Jenny Holzer Art
Materials
Offset
Truth Before Power
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Jenny Holzer (b. 1950) is a multi-disciplinary American artist best known for her text-based public art projects. She was the first woman to represent the United States at the 1990 V...
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Early 2000s Contemporary Jenny Holzer Art
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Digital Pigment
Jenny Holzer, Inflammatory Essays: Shriek When the Pain Hits...
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Hamburg, DE
Jenny Holzer (American, b. 1950)
Inflammatory Essays: Shriek When the Pain Hits During Interrogation, 1996
Multiple: Pewter multiple with engraved text
Dimensions: 6.6 × 5 × 1.1 cm (...
Category
20th Century Contemporary Jenny Holzer Art
Materials
Metal
Survival Pencils
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Jenny Holzer's menacing "Truisms" first appeared in 1983 when the artist was invited to participate in a group show exploring the themes and dialogue from George Orwell's "1984".
O...
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1990s Conceptual Jenny Holzer Art
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Pencil
Untitled (From the Living Series)
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Hong Kong, HK
Jenny HOLZER (b. 1950)
Untitled from the series THE LIVING SERIES, 1981
Bronze plaque.
This work is the artist proof number 2 from an edition of 3 plus 2 artist’s proofs.
10 x 45.5 c...
Category
1980s Conceptual Jenny Holzer Art
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Bronze
Jenny Holzer, Water Board 0000090: 2012, Signed Print, Contemporary Art
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Hamburg, DE
Jenny Holzer (American, b. 1950)
Water Board 0000090, 2012
Medium: Template reservage technique, on 350 g/qm wove paper
Dimensions: 90.5 × 70 cm (35 3/5 × 27 3/5 in)
Edition: From th...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Jenny Holzer Art
Materials
Paper
Torture Is Barbaric -- Print, Postcards, Text Art, Truisms by Jenny Holzer
By Jenny Holzer
Located in London, GB
Truisms [Torture Is Barbaric], after 1994
Jenny Holzer
Screenprint on balsa wood multiple
with text from the Survival (1983-1985) and Truisms (197...
Category
1990s Pop Art Jenny Holzer Art
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Screen
Ceramic Chargers
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Jenny Holzer's menacing (and sometimes humorous) "Truisms" first appeared in the late 1970s in a variety of forms, but initially oriented towards a type of street art.
Over the pas...
Category
Early 2000s Abstract Jenny Holzer Art
Materials
Ceramic
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Previously Available Items
Protect Me From What I Want embroidered tea towel
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Washington , DC, DC
Contemplate this though provoking statement with this tea towel designed by Jenny Holzer. Each tea towel is embroidered in the UK and made from 100% organic cotton.
Created exclusi...
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Cotton, Organic Material
Words Tend to be Inadequate embroidered tea towel
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Washington , DC, DC
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Truism 'Protect Me From What I Want' (framed)
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Jenny 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 Jenny Holzer Art
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Lithograph, Offset
Inflammatory Essay (from Documenta 1982)
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Jenny 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 Jenny Holzer Art
Materials
Lithograph, Offset
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By Jenny Holzer
Located in Hamburg, DE
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Top Secret 32, 2012
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Dimensions: 90.5 × 70 cm (35 3/5 × 27 3/5 in)
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Jenny Holzer's menacing "Truisms" first appeared in 1983 when the artist was invited to participate in a group show exploring the themes and dialogue from George Orwell's "1984".
Over the past three decades Holzer has created an impressive oeuvre consisting of objects, sculpture and public art.
From marble benches to billboards Holzer's text-based pieces have provoked the public to consider the power structures that surround us.
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Top Secret 24 // Contemporary Art // Abstract Art
By Jenny Holzer
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Top Secret 24, 2012
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Jenny Holzer art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Jenny Holzer art available for sale on 1stDibs. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Michele Zalopany, Rudolph Carl Gorman, and Warren Keating.
Artists Similar to Jenny Holzer
Questions About Jenny Holzer Art
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022While the takeaway of Jenny Holzer’s art is subjective to each individual, her work focuses mainly on the delivery of words and ideas in public spaces with large-scale installations. Shop a selection of Jenny Holzer artwork and prints on 1stDibs.
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022Jenny Holzer’s medium is visual arts, specifically conceptual art and installations. She draws on social and political commentaries to create her text-rich work. You can shop a selection of Jenny Holzer’s pieces from some of the world’s top art dealers on 1stDibs.