jenny holtzer

From 1975 JH artistic career started as she entered a Masters of Fine Arts program at Rhode Island school were she worked with the form of abstract painting. JH then moved to NY were her ideas about art changed dramatically. JH then left the world of abstract painting, and engaged with the street in favour of a more direct and politically charged art. In doing so JH became a momentous player in the post-modern art movement.

JH felt that her abstract works didn’t convey her ideas clearly to an audience and therefore did not grab their attention. “I had done public works but they were unsuccessful”. They didn’t mean anything, they were abstract.” Her painting then fell away as she grasped onto the new concept of using written text. As this technique became dominant, her small posters grabbed the attention of the audience and took effect.

JH now had now grasped of her new art style as she could gather a better response to her audience through the use of language(text) in her works. Text allowed Holtzer to be explicit about issues and it became clear that the

As her worked progressed she started placing surprising texts on materials such as stickers and plaques, where normal advertisements are expected to be. This allowed her to reach people that might not pay attention to “art”. JH wants her works to reveal truth and she wants the viewers to engage and decide what is valid and what is not. She wants her works to compel the reader to question the messages we see around us everyday. Many people wouldn’t recognise this to be a form of art as they would see them as another advertisement. Despite this, the questioning nature of her public pieces ensures that “her text can not be immediately dismissed as advertisements, politics or art.” (extract 2) Much like the Dadaists, Jenny Holtzer re-evaluates and questions the boundaries of “what art is?” She states, “I think an artist should have the freedom to do whatever one thinks is appropriate, that if a urinal can be art, why in the world cant mine be?”

Some topics in this essay:
Rhode Island, Eg JH, Square NY, Jenny Holtzer, Barbara Kurger, , MTv Billboard’s, Fine Arts, electronic signs, wider audience, reach audience, direct manner, makes audience, personal level, extract 2, extract 1, audience engage, abstract painting,