Jenny Holzer first came to the attention of the general public in the late 1970s. Inspired by Manhattan’s graffiti scene, she began putting up anonymous street posters around the city. These so-called Inflammatory Essays featured excerpts from texts by left-wing intellectuals like Karl Marx and Susan Sontag, and soon began getting a response. ‘People would cross out ones they didn’t like and would star others,’ she explained. ‘I liked that people would engage with them.' This direct dialogue with her audience would become the foundation of her art.
Holzer was born in Gallipolis in Ohio. She gained her Masters in Fine Art at Rhode Island School of Design before taking a study programme at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1977. Her tutor gave her a colossal reading list which she reduced to a series of one-liners, and never looked back. This punk-like attitude fitted with the prevailing sentiments of the era. It was a time of cut-up philosophy defined by subversive slogans and texts. Holzer’s politically-charged statements embodied the rebellious spirit of the age. Her work prompted comparison with artists such Barbara Kruger and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
In 1982, Messages to the Public featured a series of aphorisms on a Spectacolor electronic sign in Times Square. Part of her Truisms series, it included now-iconic slogans such as ‘PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT’ and ‘ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE’. Holzer has been synonymous with the blinking LED light ever since. Her neon installations and projections can be hypnotic, with text scrolling across walls and floors in glowing lines of red and gold. Yet the subject matter is never soothing. She has addressed issues including rape, famine, climate change, murder, war and AIDS, and has used declassified government documents in her art.
As well as installation, Holzer's practice encompasses paintings, prints and sculpture: her marble benches Arno Pair (2010) sold for $1,560,000 at Christie’s New York in 2022, setting a new world record. Elsewhere she has also explored digital technology, notably through her 2020 augmented reality app YOU BE MY ALLY. In 2022, she created an NFT in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn abortion rights. Her work has also intersected with popular culture over the years, appearing on everything from T-shirts to Helmut Lang advertising campaigns and temporary tattoos.
JENNY HOLZER (B. 1950)
TRUISMS 1
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Arno Pair
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Selection from Truisms: A sincere effort is all you can ask...
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Selections from Truisms: Abuse of Power…
Jenny Holzer (b. 1950)
Selections from Truisms: A sense of timing...
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Selections from Truisms: A single event...
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Survival: Protect me...
Jenny Holzer (b. 1950)
Selections from Truisms (A Lot of Professionals...)
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Selection from Survival: The Beginning of War Will Be Secret
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Survival Series: In a dream you saw a way...
Jenny Holzer (b. 1950)
Selection from "The Living Series" (Little Queenie)
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The Living Series: You can watch people align themselves...
JENNY HOLZER (B. 1950)
Selection from Truisms: Being happy is...
Jenny Holzer (B. 1950)
Laments: I Am A Man
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Put Food Out in the Same Place Everyday and Talk to the People Who Come to Eat and Organize Them (Survival Series)
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Living Series: By Your Response to Danger…
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Selection from Survival: When there is no safe place...
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Stripes
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TOP SECRET Sleep deprivation, US government document
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Selection from Survival: You are caught...
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Selection from the living series: What a shock...
Jenny Holzer (b. 1950)
Selection from Survival: It Is in Your Self-Interest…
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The Living Series: Even with your eyes closed...
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The Survival Series: What Urge Will Save Us Now That Sex Won't?
Jenny Holzer (b. 1950)
Selection from Survival: Men don't protect…
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When there is no safe place to sleep...
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White Curve
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Living Series: It's an odd feeling when...
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Survival
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Blue Corner
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Untitled
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Truisms Footstool: An elite is inevitable...
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Erlauf, Blue
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Selections from Under a Rock
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Selections from the Survival Series
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Selections from the Survival Series
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Truisms Footstool
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Living: You have to make thousands of precise...
Jenny Holzer (b. 1950)
Truism Footstool (Starvation is nature's way...)
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Survival: Protect me from what I want...
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PRESENT
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Under a Rock
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Truisms Footstool: An Elite Is Inevitable...
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Selection from the Survival Series (When there's no safe place to sleep...)
Jenny Holzer (b. 1950)
Selections from "The Living Series", "Truisms" and "The Survival Series"