Artist Jenny Holzer

Paper Summary:

This paper uses the example of Jenny Holzer's work "Truisms" ( NYC Guggenheim Museum) to illustrate her conceptual art. (Illustration included.) The author points out that Holzer's "Truisms" came about because of her despair of the present-day world where there is little dialogue about people's widely varying beliefs. The paper states that Holzer's art distinguishes two strong characteristics of the late 1970 and 1980 artists: The manipulation of gallery and museum spaces as communal locations of the dissemination of political and social commentary and the spread of activist art collections in New York.

From the Paper:

"New artistic movements arose during the 1960s and 1970s to challenge and displace modernism in painting, sculpture and other media. By the late 1970s, artists were using conversations, discussions and theoretical texts as the basis for their creative products. One of these styles was conceptualism. Deliberately formed as an approach that no aesthetic formalism could ever embrace, it placed art beyond all limitations and definitions to break the stringent constraints of the previous art history and criticism. Attention was turned toward producing and the manipulation of materials. The result or the final object became secondary and often temporary. The rise of conceptualism corresponded to artistic trends taking place in various parts of the world, as social and political upheaval prompted artists to re-examine traditional forms of representation and question art's social utility. Much of the art in exhibitions was made to provoke the viewer by disturbing previously accepted ideas about social, political and cultural systems."

More papers on Artist Jenny Holzer:

• Analytical Essay # 5997 : "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"
• Essay # 9101 : "The Jenny Craig Diet System"
• Book Review # 98073 : "A Hunger Artist"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: