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Jenny Holzer

SELECTED WORKS
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Pearl’s Truisms & Survival
2013
Horizontal LED sign: RGB diodes, stainless steel housing

Text: Truisms (1977-79) and Survival (1983-85)
9 3/8 x 68 x 2 3/8 inches  (23.6 x 173 x 6.1 cm)
Edition of 6
Signed and numbered on reverse
(Inventory #31516)

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Amber Truisms Living
2008
Semi-circular electronic LED sign with amber diodes, electro-polish aluminum housing with seamless light filter

2 x 21 x 10 3/4 inches  (5.1 x 53.3 x 27.3 cm)
Edition of 25
Signed and numbered on label on reverse

(Inventory #29671)

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Truism Footstool (Starvation is nature’s way…)
1988
Granite

Edition of 40
16 x 23 x 15 3/4 inches (40.6 x 58.4 x 40 cm)
(Inventory #32089)

TEXT READS ON TOP:
AN ELITE IS INEVITABLE
ANY SURPLUS IS IMMORAL
HUMANISM IS OBSOLETE
HUMOR IS A RELEASE
MONEY CREATES TASTE
MURDER HAS IT’S SEXUAL SIDE
SOLITUDE IS ENRICHING
TRUE FREEDOM IS FRIGHTFUL
WAR IS A PURIFICATION RITE

FRONT SIDE TEXT READS:
STARVATION IS NATURE’S WAY

BACK SIDE TEXT READS:
EATING TOO MUCH IS CRIMINAL

AKA
2006
Set of five etchings

Image size: 19 1/4 x 14 3/4 inches each (49 x 37.5 cm each)
Paper size: 29 13/16 x 22 5/16 inches each (75.7 x 56.7 cm each)
Edition of 40
Signed lower right and numbered lower left on the first print of the set
(Inventory #30934)

10 Inflammatory Essays
1979-82
Set of 10 offset posters on colored paper

Image/paper size: 17 x 17 inches each 43.2 x 43.2 cm each)
Signed lower right on the white page
(Inventory #33753)

8 Truisms
1977-79
Set of eight offset posters on paper

Image/paper size:  34 3/4 x 22 7/8 inches  (88.3 x 58.1 cm)
Signed lower right on last sheet
(Inventory #30422)

Conclusion black
2016
Aquatint and white ground etching

Text: U.S. government document
Edition of 35, 10 AP
Image/plate size: 22 x 17 inches (55.9 x 43.2 cm)
Paper size: 27 x 21 1/2 inches (68.6 x 54.6 cm)
Signed and dated lower right, numbered lower left in graphite
(Inventory #33096)

Conclusion yellow
2016
Aquatint and white ground etching

Text: U.S. government document
Edition of 35, 10 AP
Image/plate size: 22 x 17 inches (55.9 x 43.2 cm)
Paper size: 27 x 21 1/2 inches (68.6 x 54.6 cm)
Signed and dated lower right, numbered lower left in graphite
(Inventory #33098)

Conclusion red
2016
Aquatint and white ground etching

Text: U.S. government document
Edition of 35, 10 AP
Image/plate size: 22 x 17 inches (55.9 x 43.2 cm)
Paper size: 27 x 21 1/2 inches (68.6 x 54.6 cm)
Signed and dated lower right, numbered lower left in graphite
(Inventory #33099)

Selection from ‘Living 1980 – 1982’
1999
Heliogravure on Zerkall rag paper

Edition of 99
Image size: 14 7/16 x 21 3/8 inches (36.7 x 54.3 cm)
Plate size: 14 5/8 x 22 5/8 inches (37.1 x 57.5 cm)
Paper size: 17 5/8 x 24 1/4 inches (44.8 x 61.6 cm)
Signed lower right, numbered lower left
(Inventory #30266)

BRITISH FRIENDS
2017
Set of 6 Irish linen double damask napkins with satin band finish and bespoke embroidery

Text: Survival, 1983-85
Edition of 25, 5 AP
22 x 22 inches (56 x 56 cm)
The napkins are embroidered with the following line from “Survival”:

IN A DREAM YOU
SAW A WAY TO
SURVIVE
AND YOU WERE
FULL OF JOY
(Inventory #33689)

Additional Information

American installation and conceptual artist. Her studies included general art courses at Duke University, Durham, NC (1968-70), and then painting, printmaking and drawing at the University of Chicago before completing her BFA at Ohio University, Athens (1972). In 1974 she took summer courses at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, entering its MFA program in 1975 and beginning her first work with language, installation and public art. Holzer moved to New York in 1977. Her first public works, Truisms (1977-79), appeared in the form of anonymous broadsheets pasted on buildings, walls and fences in and around Manhattan. Commercially printed in cool, bold italics, numerous one-line statements such as ‘Abuse of power comes as no surprise’ and ‘There is a fine line between information and propaganda’, were meant to be provocative and elicit public debate. Thereafter Holzer used language and the mechanics of late 20th-century communications as an assault on established notions of where art should be shown, with what intention and for whom. Her texts took the forms of posters, monumental and electronic signs, billboards, television and her signature medium, the LED (light emitting diode) sign. Other works appeared on T-shirts, tractor hats, stickers, metal plaques, park benches and sarcophagi. The LED signs have been placed in high-impact public spaces such as Times Square, New York, as well as in art galleries and museums.

Bibliography

Jenny Holzer: Signs (exh. cat., Des Moines, IA, A. Cent., 1986-7) Jenny Holzer (exh. cat. by D. Waldman, New York, Guggenheim, 1989-90) M. Auping: Jenny Holzer (New York, 1992)

Copyright material reproduced courtesy of Oxford University Press, New York