Mind's Eye

Continuità

Esperienza sonora

Dintorni

Proporzioni in scala

Esperienza tattile

Luce

Circolazione

Verticalità

Learn more about the origins of the exhibition from curator Lauren Hinkson.

Transcript
Lauren Hinkson: Welcome to the exhibition "Jenny Holzer: Light Line." I’m Lauren Hinkson, the Associate Curator for Collections here at the Guggenheim. 

For more than forty years, American conceptual artist Jenny Holzer has presented her astringent ideas, arguments, and sorrows in public places and international exhibitions. Her medium is language. Whether inscribed on a plaque, poster, or condom, Holzer’s incisive text-based practice draws on the explosive power of the written word. The work tackles some of the most pressing issues and themes of our time—from climate justice to women’s rights, from war to corruption. Holzer is a vital voice in both art and activism. 

Starting in the 1970s with a series of posters around New York City and continuing through her recent light projections on landscape and architecture, Holzer’s practice has rivaled ignorance and violence with humor, kindness, and courage. For "Light Line," Holzer has conceived of the installation of work from throughout her career as a singular conceptual project—a holistic installation that builds on and refracts concerns about society, politics, and the work of living that have been an undercurrent in her practice. 

As you move through the museum, you will see and be absorbed by the monumental LED display climbing all six ramps of the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed rotunda to the building’s apex. This work is titled "Installation for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum." It is a collection work owned by the Guggenheim. The work is a reimagining of Holzer’s 1989 LED sign that was shown here some thirty-five years ago.  

The new manifestation of Holzer’s electronic sign transforms the building with a display of scrolling texts that Holzer has written over her career. The work is both witty and profound at the same time, with iconic statements from early works, such as “You Are the Victim of the Rules You Live By,” “Private Property Created Crime,” and “Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise.”   

The texts and themes in the LED sign also materialize in other works on view in "Light Line," reinforcing the correspondences in Holzer’s conceptual practice across time and medium. There are also new works incorporating texts by poets, politicians, activists, and literary figures, as well as sources like government dossiers and redacted FBI files. These take new forms in the exhibition, including light projections on the building and gold-leaf paintings. 

These messages are thought-provoking, with the artist hoping that they would sharpen people’s awareness of the political and social connotations urgent to our time. They are meant not only to be read but also heeded.

Exhibition Website

Introduction to Jenny Holzer: Light Line

"The sentence that a well-painted turnip is better than a badly painted Madonna has become a permanent feature of modern aesthetics. But the sentence is wrong; it must read: A well-painted turnip is just as good as a well-painted Madonna." This quote by Max Liebermann (1916) marks the point of departure for an exhibition at Lenbachhaus that explores what and, more importantly, how the artists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries painted. The presentation probes the question what constitutes "good painting" and examines the idea of the painterly from a variety of angles.

Aspects to be addressed include the pace of painting, beginner's luck, questions of attribution, bans on colors, and the quest for pure painting: Lovis Corinth, for example, created an enormous bouquet of flowers, a birthday gift for his wife, in a mere three days. When Franz von Stuck started experimenting with oil paints and the picture turned out well, he proudly labeled it "my first oil painting" right on the canvas, a pat on the back for himself as well as a message for posterity. A rapidly yet brilliantly painted unsigned portrait of a woman might be by Wilhelm Busch or by Franz von Lenbach, as both painted in very similar styles in the early stages of their careers. One would think that landscape painters were especially partial to the color "green," but oddly enough, pure green, straight from the tube, was derided as "spinach." Wilhelm Leibl, last but not least, cared only for the "how," not the "what"; his search for the "essence of painting" inspired his colleague Carl Schuch to make a radically simplified still life with leeks.

Brushstrokes no. 32 / EN: Eduard Schleich der Ältere, Oberbayerische Ebene mit Schafherde

Vom 19. Jahrhundert über die weltweit größte Sammlung des Blauen Reiter bis zu zeitgenössischen Kunst – entdeckt unsere einzigartige Sammlung in München!

Brushstrokes no. 32 / EN: Eduard Schleich der Ältere, Oberbayerische Ebene mit Schafherde

Lenbachhaus

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