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Set of Ten Jenny Holzer, "Inflammatory Essays"

$12,000List Priceper set

Jenny Holzer

Known for taking art out of the traditional “white cube” of galleries and museums and onto the streets, Jenny Holzer is one of the most potent feminist Neo-Conceptual artists of the 20th century. Her most iconic work critiques the information age and consumerism by reclaiming its primary media — conventional print billboards, storefront posters and LED signs.

“I used language because I wanted to offer content that people — not necessarily art people — could understand,” the Ohio-born Holzer told Interview magazine. She received her MFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design, where her work was influenced by Abstract Expressionism. It was while in the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art that Holzer became inspired to work at the intersection of public art and language.

In the late 1970s, after becoming an active participant in the downtown Manhattan artist collective Colab, which included Tom Otterness and Christy Rupp, Holzer began to create her legendary “Truisms” series. Printing anonymous one-line aphorisms in bold and italicized text on broadsheets, she pasted them up in public spaces all over New York City. The “Truisms” are provocative in questioning how we receive and process information. The work elicits debate and represents a range of perspectives. In an era that saw the rise of street art and graffiti, Holzer’s pithy word art would also find viewers by way of T-shirts, stickers and park benches, into which her slogans were carved.

Holzer’s more combative “Inflammatory Essays” (1979–82) took the form of mass-produced posters on colored paper — each featuring paragraphs as compared to the punch-line structure of “Truisms.” These touched on subjects such as violence, misogyny, power structures and consumerism, all of which have continued to be central in her work.

Starting in 1982 as part of a Public Art Fund project, Holzer projected “Protect me from what I want” and other “Truisms” on the Spectacolor board, a large computerized light signboard in New York City’s Times Square. Her “Abuse of power comes as no surprise,” which has appeared on T-shirts as part of the series, has taken on new life in an increasingly politically divided America.

Just as it did in the 1970s, the forcefulness of her work continues to make both viewers and the art world stop and pay attention. She has had solo exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Tate Modern in London and elsewhere. She has also created permanent installations including the New York City AIDS Memorial. A 2014 show at New York’s Cheim & Read featured oil-on-linen canvases based on declassified government files pertaining to detainees from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Find Jenny Holzer prints and sculptures on 1stDibs.

Jenny HolzerJenny Holzer, AKA: Portfolio of 5 Etchings, Contemporary Art, Signed Print, 2006

$4,947

H 29.77 in W 22.17 in

Jenny Holzer, AKA: Portfolio of 5 Etchings, Contemporary Art, Signed Print

By Jenny Holzer

Located in Hamburg, DE

Jenny Holzer (American, b. 1950) AKA, 2006 Medium: Set of five etchings, on Magnani Pescia paper (with title page, sheets loose, in original black silk-covered portfolio case) Dimens...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Etching

Jenny HolzerHalf Dead, "Inflammatory Essay" (from Documenta 1982), 1982

$550

H 17 in W 17 in

Half Dead, "Inflammatory Essay" (from Documenta 1982)

By Jenny Holzer

Located in Toronto, Ontario

Jenny Holzer is one of the most important and original artists of the 20th century. Her body of work, with its emphasis on text, is provocative and occasionally frightening, manipulating the language of folk wisdom, pop culture, and government slogan to produce a commentary on global issues including power structures, gender struggle, economics, voting, and warfare. Holzer's iconic "Inflammatory Essays", produced between 1979 and 1982, were first pasted on walls throughout heavily populated metro areas including New York, and shortly after in other cities. Unsigned and commercially produced, they subverted the conventions of advertising, graffiti, and public art. Each essay was in a different eye-catching color to maximize viewers' attention. It was also helpful when one Essay replaced an older one. The texts were derived from her childhood interest in rapturous writings. Holzer tried to emulate a similar style for her essays, yet borrowed from political theorists (notably Mao, Lenin, and Emma Goldman...

Category

1980s Conceptual Prints and Multiples

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Jenny HolzerTruth Before Power, 2004

$7,000

H 21.25 in W 17.75 in

Truth Before Power

By Jenny Holzer

Located in Toronto, Ontario

Jenny Holzer (b. 1950) is a multi-disciplinary American artist best known for her text-based public art projects. She was the first woman to represent the United States at the 1990 V...

Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Black and White Photography

Materials

Digital Pigment

Jenny HolzerTorture Is Barbaric -- Print, Postcards, Text Art, Truisms by Jenny Holzer, after 1994

$550

H 3.55 in W 5.52 in

Torture Is Barbaric -- Print, Postcards, Text Art, Truisms by Jenny Holzer

By Jenny Holzer

Located in London, GB

Truisms [Torture Is Barbaric], after 1994 Jenny Holzer Screenprint on balsa wood multiple with text from the Survival (1983-1985) and Truisms (1977-1979) series Published by Fotofol...

Category

1990s Pop Art More Prints

Materials

Screen

Joseph KosuthJoseph Kosuth, L’Essence de la rhétorique est dans l’allégorie IV - Signed Print, 1998

$3,534

H 15.75 in W 19.69 in

Joseph Kosuth, L’Essence de la rhétorique est dans l’allégorie IV - Signed Print

By Joseph Kosuth

Located in Hamburg, DE

Joseph Kosuth ( American, b. 1945) L’Essence de la rhétorique est dans l’allégorie IV, 1998 Medium: Set of three heliogravure and aquatints, on BFK Rives rag paper Dimensions: each 4...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Prints

Materials

Aquatint, Photogravure

Jenny HolzerEnd of the USA

$660

H 17 in W 17 in

End of the USA

By Jenny Holzer

Located in Toronto, Ontario

Jenny Holzer is one of the most important and original artists of the 20th century. Her body of work, with an emphasis on text, is consistently provocative and occasionally frightening, manipulating the language of both pop culture and government slogan to produce commentary on global issues notably power structures and warfare. Holzer's iconic "Inflammatory Essays", produced between 1979 and 1982, were first pasted on walls throughout heavily populated metro areas including New York and other cities. Composed of anonymous statements, printed on friendly or calm colored papers, the statements were influenced by writings of major political figures such as Emma Goldman...

Category

1980s Conceptual More Prints

Materials

Offset

Set of Nine Framed American Typography Pages

$1,850 / set

H 10 in W 12 in D 0.5 in

Set of Nine Framed American Typography Pages

Located in Downingtown, PA

Paul Carlyle & Guy Oring: A Set of Nine Framed Typographic Pages from New Letters & Lettering, 1938 This striking set of nine framed pages originat...

Category

Vintage 1930s American Machine Age Prints

Materials

Paper

Visual Poem Lithograph by Joan Brossa, Limited Edition 27/100, 1980

$2,061

H 15.36 in W 23.23 in D 0.04 in

Visual Poem Lithograph by Joan Brossa, Limited Edition 27/100, 1980

By Joan Brossa

Located in Barcelona, Barcelona

Visual poem made by Joan Brossa, circa 1980. Edition Numbered 27/100 Lithograph on Guarro paper. Limited edition. In very good condition. Measure: Width 38 cm (15 in) Height 50 cm...

Category

Vintage 1980s Spanish Mid-Century Modern Prints

Materials

Paper

Mel Bochner American (1940-1925) Untitled (Abstract Composition) (1984)

$6,500

H 47.25 in W 39.5 in D 1.25 in

Mel Bochner American (1940-1925) Untitled (Abstract Composition) (1984)

By Mel Bochner

Located in Dallas, TX

Melvin Simon Bochner (August 23, 1940 – February 12, 2025) was an American conceptual artist. He is considered to be one of the founders of Conceptual Art, and credited with reshapin...

Category

20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Contemporary Art

Materials

Wood, Paint, Paper

Les LevineWatch Series 1, Conceptual Color Etching by Les Levine, circa 1979

$900

H 31 in W 21 in

Watch Series 1, Conceptual Color Etching by Les Levine

By Les Levine

Located in Long Island City, NY

Les Levine, Irish/American (1935 - ) - Watch Series 1, Year: circa 1979, Medium: Color Etching, Signed and Numbered in red pencil, Edition: 2/100, Image Size: 18 x 11.5 inches, S...

Category

1970s Conceptual More Prints

Materials

Etching

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Set of Ten Jenny Holzer, "Inflammatory Essays"

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Jenny Holzer

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