Art Trends: Politics and Performance

Holzer.

In the late 1970s Jenny Holzer's wry, eye-catching, and vaguely subversive "Truisms" began showing up on posters all over Manhattan. Holzer's aphorisms gained effectiveness through their stark presentation: bland typography against passionless white backgrounds. By juxtaposing Truisms that were deliberately contradictory—such as "Everyone's work is equally important" followed by "Exceptional people deserve special concessions"—Holzer disquieted viewers who might otherwise have read her clichés as either truth or personal propaganda. Some of her best-known texts include: "Abuse of power should come as no surprise"; "Murder has its sexual side"; and "Romantic love was invented to manipulate women." By 1982 these and other Truisms were appearing in major gallery shows, and by middecade they were adorning T-shirts and other products. Holzer moved on from handbills to wall plaques, then finally to electronic display boards....

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