Jenny Holzer - Water Board 0000090

Jenny Holzer’s Water Board 0000090 combines geometric abstraction with political critique. Part of a series of paintings and prints addressing American war crimes, the artwork draws from declassified US Army documents related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Holzer replaces redacted sections of these texts with stark black rectangles, evoking the visual language of Kazimir Malevich’s minimalist compositions.

Jenny Holzer, born in 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio, is a seminal figure in contemporary art, renowned for her text-based artworks that bridge public art projects, political activism, and an astute critique of language's societal roles. Holzer's art employs a variety of media, including LED signs, projections, prints, and paintings, to explore how words serve both as tools for communication and mechanisms of concealment. Her pioneering approach is rooted in a fascination with the advertising world's command of language, driving her to deliver messages that blend seamlessly with the urban landscape yet disrupt and provoke public discourse. Central to Jenny Holzer's practice are her public installations, which utilize commercial and architectural spaces to display enigmatic yet pointed phrases addressing consumerism, power, and vulnerability. Artworks like “protect me from what I want” and “abuse of power comes as no surprise” exemplify her ability to distill complex ideas into accessible, resonant statements that encourage reflection and debate among a wide audience. Holzer's choice of language as her primary medium stems from a desire to engage directly with the public, offering content that resonates beyond the traditional confines of the art world. In addition to her public projects, Holzer's printmaking and painting ventures further showcase her commitment to examining the dynamics of language. Through these artworks, she invites audiences to critically engage with the nuances of spoken and unspoken words, highlighting the profound impact of language on perception and behavior. Jenny Holzer's contributions to contemporary art have been recognized with numerous awards, including the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1990. Her extensive exhibition history spans globally renowned institutions, such as the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Barbican Centre, and Tate.