2012
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.
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...
Digital Pigment
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...
Offset
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...
Lithograph, Offset
Eight by Eight
By Richard Serra
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Richard Serra (1938-2024) is one of the most influential and uncompromising sculptors of the 20th century. A leading figure of Minimalism and Post-Minimalism, Serra is best known f...
Lithograph
Untitled
By Beverly Pepper
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Beverly Pepper (1922-2020) was an internationally renowned artist, known for her large-scale outdoor sculptures. Although Pepper was raised and educated in New York, by her late tw...
Monoprint
Copyright
By General Idea
Located in Toronto, Ontario
In 1967, General Idea was founded in Toronto by AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Over 25 years, they made a significant contribution to po...
Mixed Media
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...
Etching
Jenny Holzer, Top Secret 32 (from Water Boarding Series), Signed Print
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Hamburg, DE
Jenny Holzer (American, b. 1950) Top Secret 32, 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 the seri...
Handmade Paper, Other Medium
Jenny Holzer Barbara Gladstone gallery 1986 (announcement)
By Jenny Holzer
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Jenny Holzer, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, 1986: Rare vintage original 1980s announcement card published on the occasion of Jenny Holzer's exhibition, "Under a Rock," at Bar...
Offset
Jenny Holzer Celebrating Printed Matter, New York 1986 (announcement)
By Jenny Holzer
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Jenny Holzer, Ten for Ten: Celebrating Printed Matter, 10th-anniversary reading, New York, 1986, Announcement Card Rare, Jenny Holzer 1980s announcement card published on the occasion of Ten for Ten: Celebrating Printed Matter - the 10th-anniversary reading. The event was held at The Great Hall of Cooper Union on November 19, 1986. It featured John Giorno, Eric Bogosian, Constance DeJong, Richard Prince, Cookie Mueller, Roz Chast, Richard Nonas...
Offset
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 (...
Metal
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...
LED Light
