Jenny holzer inflammatory essays

Originally plastered around New York City without attribution in the late 1970s and early 80s, Jenny Holzer’s Inflammatory Essays were made to confront passersby. Though she was relatively unknown at the time, Holzer’s careful combination of poetics and politics soon drew international attention and acclaim.

In 1990, she became the first woman to officially represent the United States at the Venice and was awarded the Golden Lion—the Biennale’s top prize.

Jenny holzer inflammatory essays

Just six years prior, Seattle Art Museum’s Contemporary Art Council sponsored the installation of Essays along a wall at Second Avenue and Pike Street in 1984. The posters would resurface 16 years later at SAM as part of the 2001 exhibition, Art of Protest.

Each essay, comprising 100 words and neatly arranged in 20 lines, is laden with conflicting views.

As Leah Pires recently wrote in Art in America, “The concision and conviction of the language easy agreement—a feeling that is quickly complicated by the contrad