Jenny Holzer (artist paper)
Jenny Holzer was born in Gallipolis, Ohio. She was the first child of Richard and Virginia Holzer. Holzer grew up in Lancaster, Ohio and went to school there until 1966. She also went to Florida to study at the Pine Crest Preparatory School in Fort Lauderdale. In 1968-1970, Holzer studied liberal arts at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and after that she transferred to the University of Chicago. There, she began taking painting, printmaking, and other studio courses. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1972. In 1974, she took summer courses at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. At RISD, Holzer also began the abstract paintings with words and text.
Jenny Holzer’s works main point was focusing on painting and printmaking. She was a visual artist; her works were created in many words and represented some terrifying aspect of our culture. The idea of her art was expressing through a public voice by using many modes of communication-electronic signs, plaques, tractor hats, engraving on stone benches, billboards, t-shirt, and television ads.
Holzer moved to New York in 1977, and began working with text that she had developed as art. Her abandoned painting was showed on the street in favor of more direct and politically charged art. It wasn’t too long before Holzer became a significant performer in the postmodern art movement. Her work played a role in the development and expansion of contemporary art. Over the past, her work forced her audience to deal with volatile subject matter such as war, violence, racism, rape, sex, disease, birth, and death. Her works exist all around the world, especially in the United States, where she was the first woman to present her works such as Venice Biennale. Jenny Holzer’s artwork today is presenting at the Barbara Gladstone Gallery in New York City; she lives with her husband and daughter who are also known artists in upstate New York.
Jenny Holzer first successful poster is known as “Truisms,” which is her favorite artwork. “Truisms” appeared on the streets of New York and contained text statements such as “A strong sense of duty imprisons you, believing in rebirth is the same as admitting defeat, confusing yourself is a way to stay honest, faithfulness is a social not a biological law, killing is unavoidable but is nothing to be proud of, money creates taste, murder has its sexual side, people who go crazy are too sensitive”. Her “Truisms” presented many contradictory truths to people, and it was trusting viewers to come up with the right solution. Another example was “Children are the cruelest of all, children are the hope of the future, abuse of power comes as no surprise, elite is inevitable.” These statements were completely reprehensible, and the power that people were all believable. They were agreeing and feeling about it. Jenn Holzer created “Truisms” typeface by choosing boldness that also lacked personality, which seemed more effective and specific. The scale of Holzer’s art has grown rapidly with her ambitions and now appears on billboards.
Jenny Holzers second series was “Inflammatory Essays,” were she showed concern about contemporary society. Holzer printed the “Essays” in alphabetical order. First, she printed them on small posters, and then manuscript entitled them. In everyday life, Holzer writes new stories that she recorded from her own responses to things which were happening around her. She tried to refuse her “Essays” in any non-underground formats because of their radical nature. Her declarative language assumed particular force and violence in the multiple viewpoints of the “Essays”. Here is one example of her writing “Essays” that according to the text writes, “DON’T TALK DOWN TO ME. DON’T BE POKITE TO ME. DON’T TRY TO MAKE ME FEEL NICE. DON’T RELAX. PLL CUT THE SMILE OFF YOUR FACE…DO YOU WANT TO FALL NOT EVER KNWOING WHO TOOK UP?”
“Living Series” was another print idea of Jenny Holzer. The texts reflected and commented on everyday life concerns and activities such as eating, breathing, sleeping, and human relationships. Medical and government buildings use Holzer’s work that was created by using aluminum and bronze plaques for their presentation format.
After working for many years, Holzer’s texts have become increasingly personal, and have developed in natural and calculated ways. The language was directing responses to what is going on in the world. Her work also constituted a unique outgrowth of the various strains of American sculpture, video that was issued of politics, culture, and autobiography that were very much known as in general.
Jenny Holzer first environmental installation is known as “Under a Rock,” which combined modern media of the communication industry, the electronic signboard, with marble benches printed in the block letters used in national cemeteries. The language measured anger and violence with the apathetic reportage of the most people. One example of “Under a Rock” writes, “CRACK THE PELVIS SO SHE LIES RIGHT. THIS IS A MISTAKE. WHEN SHE DIES YOU CANNOT REPEAT THE ACT. THE ONES WILL NOT GROW TOGETHER AGAIN AND THE PERONALITY WILL NOT COME BACK. SHE IS GOING TO SINK DEEP INTO THE MOSS TO GET WHITE AND LIGHTER. SHE IS UNRESPONSIVE TO BEGGIN AND SEFL-ABSORBED.
Beside working on installations of text designs, Jenny Holzer was also working on fashion such as using her texts to apply on T-shirts. Holzer had done about thirty of the popular truism T-shirt. Each T-shirt she created contained a short statement of text, and each statement has their own meaning. However, there are a lot more details about Jenny Holzer’s work’s information in the text. Her work was very interested me because of the ways it shows scale, movement, signs, colors, and the word’s meaning inside them. Overall, I really enjoyed learning about her work for research. It was really exciting to know and see her works.
