Jenny Holzer at the National Gallery of Art

DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL LECTURE SERIES

Jenny Holzer: Public Art
May 6 at 3:30 p.m.

Jenny Holzer in conversation with Harry Cooper, curator and head of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art, East Building Concourse, Auditorium

Jenny Holzer's powerful text-based work has enlivened public spaces for nearly thirty-five years. Born in 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio, Holzerholds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and honorary doctorates, including those from Williams College (2000), the New School (2005), and Smith College (2009). In 1977, while enrolled in the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program, she began work on her breakthrough Truisms. A series of witty and salient aphorisms that she composed and printed on posters, these works were distributed anonymously in the urban environment. They have subsequently appeared on materials as diverse as billboards, marble benches, and what have become the best known of her media, LED signs. In 1990, Holzer was the first woman to have a solo presentation in the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, for which she was awarded the Golden Lion. She stopped writing her own texts in 2001, choosing instead to borrow language from writers, philosophers, poets, and political figures for such works as her large-scale projections on the sides of buildings and landscapes. Since 2004, she has mined declassified government documents for the series Redaction Paintings. In 2010, Holzer gave the Gallery six Redaction Paintings, each depicting the censored handprint of an American soldier accused of committing crime in Iraq. Holzer lives and works in New York.




www.nga.gov/programs/lectures/#diamonsteinspielvogel (lecture information)
www.nga.gov/podcasts/diamonstein-spielvogel/index.shtm (Diamonstein-Spielvogel Lecture Series podcasts)
www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/tinfo_f?object=152280 (Learn about the Redaction Paintings)

The Diamonstein-Spielvogel Lecture Series provides a forum for distinguished artists to discuss the genesis and evolution of their work in their own words. Dr. Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel and the Honorable Carl Spielvogel generously endowed this series in 1997 to make such conversations available to the public. Recordings from this program are available at www.nga.gov/podcasts/diamonstein-spielvogel.


Events are free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-seated basis. Registration is not required.

Source:
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
Talks/Lectures
6th Street & Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20565
www.nga.gov