Key takeaways
- Sherrie Levine is a prominent artist in the postmodern appropriation movement. She reinterpreted appropriation itself with her polished cast bronze urinals titled Fountain, a tribute to Duchamp's iconic readymade.
- Her work challenges traditional notions of originality, authorship, and the value of art.
- Levine's "After Walker Evans" series rephotographed existing images, sparking discussions about copyright and artistic ownership.
- Her work engages with discourses of fetishism, Marxism, and psychoanalysis.
- Levine's art draws attention to the commodification of female sexuality and patriarchal constraints.
Sherrie Levine
Sherrie Levine (b. 1947) is an American photographer, painter, and conceptual artist known for her thought-provoking exploration of originality and authorship in art. Her work often involves the exact reproduction of iconic photographs by artists such as Walker Evans, Eliot Porter, and Edward Weston.
Born in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, Levine spent much of her upbringing in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri, which shaped her identity. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, earning a B.A. in 1969 and an M.F.A. in 1973. In 1975, she moved to New York City, immersing herself in its dynamic art scene, which profoundly influenced her development as a leading figure in postmodern art.
Levine rose to prominence in the late 1970s and 1980s with works that challenge traditional notions of originality and ownership in art. Her acclaimed series After Walker Evans, which rephotographed Evans' Depression-era images, ignited debates about copyright and the boundaries of artistic appropriation. Through her innovative use of existing images and objects, Levine continues to question the very nature of art and its authorship.
Sherrie Levine examines authorship and originality through her art, employing rephotography, painting, and sculpture to reinterpret existing works. Her practice challenges traditional notions of creativity and the artist's role.
Notable works like her After Edward Weston series, which rephotographs iconic black-and-white images, highlight her focus on artistic philosophy. Levine also reimagines Van Gogh’s paintings and creates sculptures inspired by Marcel Duchamp and Constantin Brâncuși.
As a prominent figure of the Pictures Generation, Levine was instrumental in challenging conventional art practices. Her work has also fueled discussions on feminism, emphasizing the need for greater gender representation in art.
Levine’s approach situates art within a broader cultural context, embracing postmodern ideas of irony and pastiche. By questioning originality and authenticity, she redefines the artist as a collaborator in the continuous evolution of art.
The birth of an appropriation artist
In 1977, Sherrie Levine participated in the influential "Pictures" exhibition at Artists Space in New York, curated by Douglas Crimp. Alongside artists like Robert Longo and Jack Goldstein, this exhibition marked the emergence of the Pictures Generation. Levine’s 1981 solo show at Metro Pictures Gallery introduced her iconic After Walker Evans series, solidifying her position as a leading figure in appropriation art.
Levine’s work Sons and Lovers (1976–1977), featured in the "Pictures" exhibition, comprised thirty-two tempera-on-graph-paper paintings of silhouetted profiles. The exhibition included twenty-nine works by artists who explored representation and semiotics through appropriation. However, Crimp's curatorial approach underemphasized the role of text in these pieces.
As a postmodernist photographer, Levine challenged the notion that photographs reflect reality, proposing instead that all art forms convey constructed ideas of reality. Her rephotographed works, nearly indistinguishable from their originals, questioned traditional concepts of originality, authenticity, artistic mastery, and authorship.
Levine viewed her work as a collaborative transformation of masterpieces, focusing on renewing art rather than emphasizing the artist's genius. Postmodern art critic Craig Owens commended Levine's exploration of appropriation and her critique of the commodification of art through photography.
The Pictures Generation movement
Sherrie Levine is a prominent figure in the Pictures Generation, a group of artists that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Alongside contemporaries like Louise Lawler, Barbara Kruger, and Mike Bidlo, these artists critically engaged with mass media imagery and its influence on culture.
Levine’s work was featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 2009 exhibition "The Pictures Generation," presented alongside her peers. Coined by Douglas Crimp, the term "Pictures Generation" marked a shift in the art world, as artists transitioned from minimalism to creating works that interrogated imagery and representation.
Levine is best known for her After Walker Evans series, first exhibited in her 1981 solo show at Metro Pictures Gallery in New York. This series, which involved rephotographing Walker Evans' Depression-era images, ignited debates about authorship and originality in art.
Her innovative approach to reusing and reimagining existing images has had a lasting impact on contemporary appropriation art, influencing how artists interpret media and popular culture. Like Levine, artists such as Louise Lawler and Barbara Kruger continue to explore the cultural power of appropriation in their work.
Artistic philosophy and methodology
Levine’s art is deeply influenced by postmodern theory, particularly Roland Barthes' concept of the "Death of the Author." Levine challenges the notions of artistic genius and originality, focusing instead on how viewers interpret and create meaning from her work.
Her art explores themes of authenticity, identity, and ownership in art, questioning what it truly means to possess an image or idea.
Levine's use of appropriation directly engages with Barthes’ idea that the "birth of the reader" comes with the "death of the author." Through rephotographing and recontextualizing images, she demonstrates that art is built upon existing works, thus dismantling the myth of artistic originality.
Levine’s methodical approach invites viewers to reconsider concepts of authorship, originality, and authenticity in contemporary art. Her work encourages active engagement, urging viewers to question the boundaries between creation and re-creation and to reflect on their role in the meaning-making process.
Feminist critique in male-dominated art world
Sherrie Levine's work plays a central role in feminist theory, challenging the male-dominated art world. By re-photographing and recontextualizing images created by men, she makes a powerful feminist statement that questions the notion of originality in art.
Her work was featured in the 1984 exhibition "Difference: On Representation and Sexuality," which explored themes of gender and sexuality. Levine reinterpreted Walker Evans' photographs, subverting the power dynamics in the art world. She questioned the authority of male artists and the pervasive male gaze in art.
Levine’s work resonates with Laura Mulvey's film theory, which critiques the way women are portrayed in classic Hollywood cinema. Through her reimagining of these images, Levine challenges the male-dominated narratives that have long shaped art.
Notable works
Much of Levine's work involves the direct appropriation of iconic modernist artworks by artists such as Walker Evans, Edgar Degas, Marcel Duchamp, and Constantin Brâncuși. While appropriation art gained widespread attention in the late 1970s, its roots can be traced back to early modernist practices, particularly collage. In the 1980s, other appropriation artists like Louise Lawler, Vikky Alexander, Barbara Kruger, and Mike Bidlo gained prominence in New York’s East Village. The significance of appropriation art in contemporary culture lies in its ability to take widely recognized cultural imagery and recontextualize it, often narrowing its focus and altering its meaning.
Levine is perhaps best known for her "After Walker Evans" series, which debuted at her 1981 solo exhibition at Metro Pictures Gallery in New York. These works feature well-known photographs by Walker Evans, rephotographed by Levine from an Evans exhibition catalogue and presented as her own without alteration. The Evans photographs, originally part of his book "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men", are iconic images documenting rural poverty during the Great Depression and are considered quintessential representations of that era.
Levine’s appropriation of Evans’s images has become emblematic of the postmodern movement. By rephotographing and re-feminizing these images, she draws attention to the transparency of the photographs' message, rather than focusing on authorship. Including herself in the series can be seen as a gesture of solidarity with the subjects depicted.
Other notable works by Levine include photographs of Van Gogh’s paintings from a book of his work, watercolor paintings directly based on Fernand Léger’s art, pieces of plywood painted in bright solid colors, and her 1991 sculpture "Fountain", a bronze version of Marcel Duchamp’s iconic 1917 piece. This particular work challenges ideas of originality by remaking existing artworks, transforming them into something new yet still familiar. By choosing a polished bronze finish for "Fountain", Levine references the works of Brâncuși, drawing a parallel between the two artists’ practices and raising questions about the nature of originality and the act of copying.
Levine also appropriated Duchamp’s "The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even" in her 1989 series, "The Bachelors (After Marcel Duchamp)". This series consists of six frosted-glass sculptures, each based on a different malic-mold from Duchamp's original work. Displayed in separate glass vitrines, the sculptures disrupt the original structure of power represented by Duchamp’s work, allowing Levine to use the series as a vehicle for broader social commentary.
Major museum collections and exhibitions
Sherrie Levine's work holds significant importance in the art world, with pieces in prestigious collections. Her solo exhibitions have also made a notable impact. For example, her 2011 exhibition "Mayhem" at the Whitney Museum of American Art showcased her career and cemented her status as a key figure in modern art. In 2016, "After All" at the Neues Museum in Nuremberg, Germany, further highlighted how her ideas continue to inspire artists and scholars. Levine's presence in these major museums and her influential exhibitions underscore her lasting impact on contemporary art. Her work challenges traditional notions of authorship and originality, solidifying her place as a major figure in modern art.
"Sherrie Levine: La Fortune (After Man Ray)" at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1991), "Sherrie Levine: Newborn" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Portikus in Frankfurt, Marian Goodman Gallery in New York, The Menil Collection in Houston, and Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (1993-1995), "Inviter 5/ Sherrie Levine" at Casino Luxembourg (1997), "Taking Pictures: Sherrie Levine after Walker Evans" at the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida (1998), "New Sculpture, 1996-1999" at the Musée d'art moderne et contemporain (MAMCO) in Geneva (1999), "Abstraction" at The Arts Club of Chicago (2006), "Pairs and Posses" at the Museum Haus Lange in Krefeld (2010), "Mayhem" at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (2011), "Sherrie Levine" at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon (2013), and "After All" at the Neues Museum in Nuremberg, Germany (2016) are just some of her most notable exhibitions.
Levine's work is held in numerous prestigious institutions, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo, the Baltimore Museum of Art in Maryland, The Broad in Los Angeles, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, La Colección Jumex in Mexico City, and the Dallas Museum of Art. Other collections include the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain (MAMCO) in Geneva, The Menil Collection in Houston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
FAQ
Who is Sherrie Levine?
Sherrie Levine is a famous American artist known for her work in photography, painting, and conceptual art. She became well-known in the late 1970s and 1980s. Her art challenges ideas about originality and the value of art by using and changing existing images and objects.
Where did Sherrie Levine grow up and study art?
Levine grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother introduced her to art early on. She got her B.A. in 1969 and M.F.A. in 1973 from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. In 1975, she moved to New York City to start her art career.
How did Levine establish herself as a leading figure in appropriation art?
Levine was part of the "Pictures" exhibition at Artists Space in New York in 1977. This was a key moment for the "Pictures Generation." Her "After Walker Evans" series at Metro Pictures Gallery in 1981 made her a major figure in appropriation art.
What is Levine's most famous series, and how did it impact the art world?
Levine's "After Walker Evans" series is her most famous. It features rephotographed images from Evans' work on the Depression. This series caused controversy and legal issues, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art bought the whole series. It shows Levine's critique of originality and her thoughts on image ownership in the age of reproduction.
How does Levine's work relate to feminist art and theory?
Levine's work is linked to 1980s feminist theory. Her use of male artists' works critiques the male-dominated art world. Levine was part of the "Difference: On Representation and Sexuality" exhibit in 1984, which explored gender and sexuality.
What are some of Levine's other notable works and series?
Levine has made many important works besides "After Walker Evans." She has rephotographed images by Eliot Porter and Edward Weston, made watercolor paintings based on Fernand Léger's work, and created sculptures inspired by Marcel Duchamp and Constantin Brâncuși. Her 1991 sculpture "Fountain," a bronze urinal inspired by Duchamp's work, shows her ability to question what makes an art object.
How has Levine's work influenced contemporary art?
Levine's work in appropriation art has greatly influenced later artists, especially in the digital age. Her questioning of authorship and originality is more relevant today, with discussions on copyright, fair use, and creativity in the digital world. Contemporary artists continue to explore and expand on Levine's ideas.
Selena Mattei
