Jenny Holzer facts for kids

Jenny Holzer (born July 29, 1950) is an American artist. She is known for using words and ideas in her art, often in public places. Her art includes big displays, billboards, and words projected onto buildings. She also uses bright electronic signs. Jenny Holzer was part of a group of artists in the 1980s who wanted to show new ideas through their art. She was also part of the feminist art movement.

About Jenny Holzer

Early Life and Education

Jenny Holzer was born in Ohio in 1950. She first wanted to be a painter. She studied art at several universities, including Duke University and Ohio University. In 1976, she moved to New York City. There, she started making art using words and putting it in public places. She also joined an artist group called Colab.

Art Style and Materials

Holzer is known as a neo-conceptual artist. This means her art focuses on ideas and messages, often using words. Most of her art is shown in public places. She uses words and phrases to share her ideas.

Her large art projects have included:

• Advertising billboards
• Words projected onto buildings
• Bright electronic signs, especially those with LED lights.

LED signs have become her most famous way to show art. But she also uses many other materials. These include street posters, painted signs, stone benches, paintings, photos, sound, and video. She even designed a race car for BMW! Since 1996, projecting text with light has been a key part of her art.

Holzer often uses only capital letters in her work. She sometimes makes words or phrases italic. She says this is to show "some sense of urgency and to speak a bit loudly."

Holzer is part of a group of artists from the 1980s. These artists looked for new ways to tell stories or share comments through visual art. She was an active member of Colab. She took part in The Times Square Show, a famous art event. Other female artists from that time include Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman.

Holzer's art often talks about topics like feminism and fairness.

Famous Artworks

Installation in lobby at 7 WTC

Detail of 7 WTC installation

Jenny Holzer, "Xenon" from The National Security Archive

Early Public Art

Holzer's first public artworks are called Truisms (1977–79). These are short, powerful statements. She first printed them on paper in black italic letters. She then pasted them on buildings, walls, and fences in New York City. She also put Truisms on posters, T-shirts, stickers, and carved them into stone benches.

In 1981, Holzer started the Living series. These were printed on metal plaques, like those found on government buildings. The Living series talked about everyday life, such as eating, breathing, and relationships.

Inflammatory Essays was another work she created from 1979 to 1982. These were posters with strong statements. She put them up around New York. The ideas on these posters were inspired by political figures like Emma Goldman.

Using Technology in Art

In 1982, computer systems became important in Holzer's art. She put her first large electronic sign in Times Square in New York. This was sponsored by the Public Art Fund. Using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) helped Holzer reach many more people.

Her Survival series (1983-85) used these LED signs. The texts in this series talked about the joys and difficulties of modern life. In 1986, she started working with stone. For one show, she combined a bright LED sign with stone benches. In 1989, her art at the Guggenheim Museum featured a very long LED sign that spiraled up a wall.

Laments and International Recognition

In 1989, Jenny Holzer created the Laments series for the Dia Art Foundation in New York. This art project had columns of colored lights and carved marble and granite. The Laments made people think about death and sadness. Holzer used the word "I" in these pieces to make it sound like a dead person was speaking. This made the art more interesting. In Laments, Jenny gave a voice to 13 different people who had passed away. She touched on topics like motherhood, pain, and torture.

In 1989, Holzer became only the second female artist to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in Italy. At the 1990 Biennale, her LED signs and marble benches were shown in the American Pavilion. She also designed posters, hats, and T-shirts to sell in Venice. Her art project, Mother and Child, won her a top award, the Leone D'Oro, for best pavilion.

Using Other People's Words

While Holzer wrote most of her own texts until 2001, she has mostly used texts written by others since 1993. These include writings from famous authors like Wislawa Szymborska. Since 2010, Holzer's art has focused on government documents, especially those about Iraq and the Middle East.

She has used parts of declassified U.S. Army documents from the war in Iraq. For example, a large LED artwork shows parts of interviews with American soldiers accused of human rights violations. This makes secret information public.

Holzer's art often deals with violence, unfairness, feminism, power, war, and death. She uses the language of modern information systems to talk about these important topics. Her main goal is to make people aware of things that are often kept hidden.

Selected Artworks and Projects

• Inflammatory Essays (1979-82): Posters with strong statements, originally pasted on New York City streets.
• Living Series (early 1980s): Art using large materials like bronze plaques and billboards.
• Laments (1989): A multi-media art project at the Dia Art Foundation with 13 stone sarcophagi.
• Protect Me From What I Want: The 15th work for the BMW Art Car Project. Holzer wrote phrases on a BMW race car.
• Terminal 5 (2004): Her art was shown electronically on the old departures board at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
• For the City (2005): Nighttime projections of declassified government documents on buildings in New York City.
• For the Capitol (2007): Nighttime projections of quotes by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Theodore Roosevelt about art and culture.
• Redaction Paintings (2008): Paintings that show declassified government memos. Much of the text is blacked out by censors.
• For Leonard Cohen (2017): Large light projections on a silo in Montréal, showing phrases from Leonard Cohen's poems and songs.

Permanent Art Displays

Jenny Holzer's art can be seen permanently in many places:

• IT TAKES A WHILE BEFORE YOU CAN STEP OVER INERT BODIES AND GO AHEAD WITH WHAT YOU WERE TRYING TO DO. (1989): Twenty-eight white granite benches with words carved into them, at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
• Installation for Aachen (1991): At the Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Germany.
• Green Table (1992): A large granite picnic table with words carved into it, at the University of California, San Diego.
• Installation for Schiphol (1995): At Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, the Netherlands.
• Erlauf Peace Monument (1995): An outdoor art project in Austria that remembers lives lost in World War II.
• Installation for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997): Tall LED columns of text in English and Basque at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
• Ceiling Snake (1997): 138 electronic LED signs installed at the Hamburger Kunsthalle.
• Truisms selections (1998): On LED displays and carved into stone benches at Ohio University.
• Historical Speeches (1999): A 4-sided electronic LED sign at the Reichstag in Berlin, showing speeches.
• For 7 World Trade (2006): A permanent LED installation in the lobby of 7 World Trade Center.
• For MCASD (2007): A permanent LED installation on the outside of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
• New York City AIDS Memorial (2016): Granite pavers with lines from Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself."

Screen Prints and Paintings

In 2007, Holzer showed a series of screen prints. These were based on PowerPoint diagrams used to brief U.S. leaders about the plan to invade Iraq. Holzer found these documents online. Other paintings show confessions or letters from prisoners. They also show autopsy reports or discussions about torture. The parts of the text that were blacked out by censors are left as they are.

A 2014 series of paintings explores the story of Jamal Nasser. He was an 18-year-old Afghan soldier who died while in U.S. military care. These paintings are based on a declassified report.

Dance Projects

Holzer has also worked with dance. In 1985, she created "Holzer Duet ... Truisms" with dancer Bill T. Jones. In 2010, she worked with choreographer Miguel Gutierrez. Ten dancers performed in a room where Holzer's words were projected onto the walls.

Books by Holzer

• A Little Knowledge (1979)
• Black Book (1980)
• Hotel (with Peter Nadin, 1980)
• Living (with Nadin, 1980)
• Eating Friends (with Nadin, 1981)
• Eating Through Living (with Nadin, 1981)
• Truisms and Essays (1983)
• The Venice Installation (1990)
• Die Macht des Wortes = (2006)

Exhibitions and Shows

Jenny Holzer's art has been shown in many museums around the world. These include the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. She has also been part of big art events like Documenta 8 in Germany.

In recent years, she has had several solo shows:

• Jenny Holzer: Projecto Parede (2014) at the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art in Brazil.
• Jenny Holzer: Dust Paintings (2014) in New York, showing her use of government documents.
• Jenny Holzer: Softer Targets (2015) in the UK, featuring new and old works.
• War Paintings (2015) at the Museo Correr in Venice, Italy.
• REJOICE! OUR TIMES ARE INTOLERABLE: Jenny Holzer's Street Posters, 1977-1982 (2016-17) in New York, showing her early street posters.

Her work was also shown alongside famous artists like Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys. In 2018, she had the exhibition Artist Rooms: Jenny Holzer at Tate Modern in London. In 2019, she had a large exhibition called "Zera deskribaezina" (It is irreversible) at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

Holzer is one of six artists who helped choose art for the "Artistic License" exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from 2019 to 2020. Her exhibition, Jenny Holzer: Light Line, is also on view at the Guggenheim Museum from May to September 2024.

Awards and Honors

Jenny Holzer has received many important awards for her art:

• The Golden Lion at the 1990 Venice Biennale.
• The Blair Award from the Art Institute of Chicago (1982).
• The Skowhegan Medal for Installation (1994).
• The Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum (1996).
• The Berlin Prize fellowship (2000).
• The Order of Arts and Letters from the French government (2002).
• The Barnard Medal of Distinction (2011).

In 2010, she received the Distinguished Women in the Arts Award from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA). This award is a bronze plaque designed by Holzer herself. It features one of her Truisms: "It is in your self-interest to find a way to be very tender."

Holzer also has honorary degrees from several universities. In 2018, she became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Personal Life

In the early 1980s, Holzer bought a farm in Hoosick, New York. She split her time between the farm and her art studio in Manhattan. She now has a studio in Brooklyn. Her personal art collection includes works by artists like Alice Neel and Louise Bourgeois.

Holzer has said that she is not religious in a traditional way. But she believes in having "appropriate feeling that might make for sanity and better behavior." When asked if she is a political artist, Holzer said she is an artist who is also political. She believes art can help people understand and feel important realities, which might then inspire them to act.

In 2024, Holzer was one of many artists who contributed art to "Artists for Kamala." This online sale helped raise money for Kamala Harris' political campaign.

See also

In Spanish: Jenny Holzer para niños

• Art & Language
• Barbara Kruger
• Martin Firrell
• Vectors Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular
• Sprüth Magers Berlin London
• Robert Montgomery