Whitney Museum: Jenny Holzer: Protect Protect Brochure

March 12–May 31, 2009

Using language as her medium, Jenny Holzer (b. 1950) has created a critically important body of work over the past three decades. Her texts have appeared in nontraditional media such as posters and electronic signs, billboards and T-shirts, and most recently as dematerialized, luminous projections on surfaces as different as crashing ocean waves and the Louvre’s large glass pyramid. Perhaps surprising for those who have followed the work of this artist for many years, her chosen texts recently have been rendered in oil paintings and in dazzling, large-scale electronic sculptures. While the political content of Holzer’s latest work fits in the tradition of Goya, the ethereal color and architectural scale draw inspiration from Matisse, Malevich, Rothko, and LeWitt. The works in this exhibition feature selections of Holzer’s writings from 1977 to 2001, as well as declassified pages from U.S. government documents she has used as source material since 2004. The exhibition’s subtitle PROTECT PROTECT derives from texts detailing plans for the Iraq war, yet it also relates to the problematic power of personal desire, as encapsulated in one of Holzer’s best-known statements: PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT. Whether she is using her own idiomatic texts, borrowing the words of international poets, or citing formerly classified materials containing policy debates, battle plans, and testimonies of American soldiers and detainees in U.S. custody, Holzer works between the public and private, the body politic and the body, the universal and the particular. Always timely, she provides a range of opinions, attitudes, and voices in works infused with formal beauty, sensitivity, and power. REDACTION PAINTINGS For these paintings, Holzer worked with materials from the National Security Archive, a nonpartisan, nongovernmental organization that collects declassified government documents and makes them available to the public, and from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which makes formerly classified information available to the public on its website. Subject matter deemed too sensitive for the public eye was blacked out, or redacted, by government censors during the declassification process. Under the landmark Freedom of Information Act passed in 1966, all are now public record, though some remain heavily redacted. When Holzer reproduces these materials, she includes them whole and verbatim. The various styles of marking and redacting give

evidence to the number of individuals involved in both the execution of the war and the management of its information, lending a human presence to the blank face of bureaucracy. The paintings’ source materials include autopsy reports of detainees in the Middle East, correspondence and documents related to detainee interrogation, redacted handprints of U.S. military personnel accused of crimes, and maps from a PowerPoint presentation given by the U.S. military’s Central Command to the White House that delineate and propose various strategies and plans for the invasion of Iraq. ELECTRONIC SIGNS Holzer began writing early in her career; her most well-known texts are the

Truisms (1977–79) and Inflammatory Essays (1979–82). She uses various media to disseminate her writings, particularly LED (light-emitting diode) signs, which are commonly used for advertising and to report the news in the public realm. The LED signs in this exhibition draw from declassified government documents as well as the thirteen texts written by Holzer from 1977 to 2001. Documents have been re-keyed for the LED works and only changed as necessary for the medium. For example, redactions are represented by a series of X’s. The artist carefully considers every aspect of the signs from shape, font, and color choice to the pace of the scroll and movement of the text. In some cases the intent of the work is to soothe; in others, to repel or make the viewer uncomfortable. Holzer’s light sculptures have both an intimacy and grandeur, and create almost force fields around and within the spaces they define, transforming the contemporary gallery’s “white cube” into an immersive environment. Red Yellow Looming (2004), Thorax (2008), and Purple (2008) are programmed with declassified documents. Red Yellow Looming touches on policy-making and public debate as it unfolded through the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. The documents deal with such issues as the international trade in arms and oil, the “war” on terrorism, 9/11, and the FBI and CIA, but all concern events prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Thorax presents an array of documents concerning one case in which an Iraqi non-combatant was killed by American forces. The documents contain many conflicting accounts of the same incident from different perspectives. Purple includes autopsy reports of detainees that died while in

American custody, documents detailing various events and conditions at Guantánamo Bay, a series of policy documents regarding the treatment of enemy combatants, as well as the same case file included in Thorax. LUSTMORD Loosely translated, the German word lustmord means rape-slaying, sex-murder, or lust-killing. It is the title of one of Holzer’s texts as well as a work on view in the exhibition. Prompted by the atrocities of war in the former Yugoslavia (1992–95) where the rape and murder of women and girls was a systematic tactic used by Bosnian-Serb forces, the Lustmord texts were originally written on human bodies, which were photographed for presentation. Since then, it has been shown in sitespecific installations using a range of materials. The Whitney’s installation consists of human bones, both male and female specimens, laid out like artifacts on a found wooden table. Some of them feature silver bands engraved with fragments of text that detail the rape and murder of women from the perspectives of victim, perpetrator, and witness. The circular texts cannot be read all at once, a metaphor for the variety of viewpoints expressed.

Jenny Holzer: PROTECT PROTECT is co-organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland. Major support for Jenny Holzer: PROTECT PROTECT is provided by Donald and Brigitte Bren, Anne and Burt Kaplan, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Additional support is generously provided by Andrea and Jim Gordon, Penny Pritzker and Bryan Traubert, Sara Szold, Gretchen and Jay Jordan, the Kovler Family Foundation, Cari and Michael Sacks, Howard and Donna Stone, Kathy and Steven Taslitz, Helen and Sam Zell, Lannan Foundation, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Cheim & Read, Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers, Yvon Lambert, Barbara Ruben, Irving Stenn, Jr., Lynn and Allen Turner, and The Orbit Fund. Major support for the Whitney’s presentation is provided by the National Committee of the Whitney Museum of American Art in honor of Linda Pace, Jack and Susan Rudin in honor of Beth Rudin DeWoody, and The Broad Art Foundation. Significant support is provided by Elizabeth A. Sackler—JCF, Museum Educational Trust.

Sponsored by

Redaction Paintings

Lustmord Table

Fire EXIT

Redaction Paintings Thorax

Red Yellow Looming

Monument

HAND Purple

For Chicago Green Purple Cross & Blue Cross

PROTECT PROTECT deep purple

stairs Elevator Elevator

REDACTION PAINTINGS

ELECTRONIC SIGNS

Redaction Paintings

Red Yellow Looming

2005–09

Oil on linen; a selection Text: U.S. government documents 33 x 25 1/2 in. (83.8 x 64.8 cm) or 58 x 44 in. (147.3 x 111.8 cm), each Collection of the artist; courtesy Cheim & Read, New York; and Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston

PROTECT PROTECT deep purple 2007 Oil on linen Text: U.S. government document 79 x 102 1/4 in. (200.7 x 259.7 cm) Collection of Howard and Donna Stone

2004

Thirteen double-sided electronic LED signs with red diodes on front and amber diodes on back Text: U.S. government documents 128 1/4 x 109 x 145 3/4 in. (325.8 x 276.9 x 370.2 cm) Collection of Cari and Michael J. Sacks

Blue Cross

Text: Arno, 1996 72 3/4 x 109 x 89 1/2 in. (184.8 x 276.9 x 227.3 cm)

2008

Oil on linen; thirty-six elements

Green Purple Cross

Text: U.S. government documents

Five double-sided electronic LED signs: three with blue and green diodes on front and blue and red diodes on back; two with blue and red diodes on front and blue and green diodes on back

58 x 44 in. (147.3 x 111.8 cm), each Collection of the artist; courtesy Cheim & Read, New York; Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers, Berlin and London; and Yvon Lambert, Paris

In museum lobby, above Sarabeth’s:

MAP

2008

Oil on linen; a selection Text: U.S. government documents 79 x 102 1/4 in. (200.7 x 259.7 cm), each Collection of the artist; courtesy Cheim & Read, New York; Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers, Berlin and London; and Yvon Lambert, Paris

Lustmord Table

Ten electronic LED signs with amber diodes

Human bones, engraved silver, and wood table

Texts: Truisms, 1977–79; Inflammatory Essays, 1979–82; Living, 1980–82; Survival, 1983–85; Under a Rock, 1986; Laments, 1989; Mother and Child, 1990; War, 1992; Lustmord, 1993–95; Erlauf, 1995; Arno, 1996; Blue, 1998; and Oh, 2001

Text: Lustmord, 1993–95

2008

Texts: Erlauf, 1995; Arno, 1996; and Blue, 1998 50 1/4 x 122 5/8 x 96 1/4 in. (127.6 x 311.5 x 244.5 cm) Collection of the artist; courtesy Yvon Lambert, Paris

Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; commissioned through the generosity of the Edlis/Neeson Art Acquisition Fund

MONUMENT

2008

Twenty double-sided, semi-circular electronic LED signs: eleven with red and white diodes on front and back; nine with red and blue diodes on front and blue and white diodes on back Texts: Truisms, 1977–79, and Inflammatory Essays, 1979–82 190 1/2 x 57 3/4 x 28 7/8 in. (483.8 x 146.7 x 73.3 cm) Collection of the artist; courtesy Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers, Berlin and London; and Diehl + Gallery One, Moscow

Purple

2008

Twelve double-sided, curved electronic LED signs with white diodes on front and red and blue diodes on back

Thirty-three double-sided, curved electronic LED signs: twelve with red and blue diodes on front and blue and white diodes on back; twenty-one with red and blue diodes on front and green and white diodes on back

Text: U.S. government documents

Text: U.S. government documents

101 1/2 x 37 1/8 x 37 1/8 in. (257.8 x 94.3 x 94.3 cm)

37 1/8 x 397 3/8 x 37 1/8 in. (94.3 x 1009.3 x 94.3 cm)

The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica

Collection of the artist; courtesy Yvon Lambert, Paris

Thorax

1994

29 1/4 x 70 x 44 3/4 in. (74.3 x 177.8 x 113.7 cm) Collection of the artist; courtesy Cheim & Read, New York

2 3/8 x 313 x 642 1/2 in. (6 x 795 x 1631.9 cm)

2008

Seven double-sided electronic LED signs with blue diodes on front and blue and red diodes on back

David Roberts Art Foundation, London

HAND

LUSTMORD For Chicago 2008

2008

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Holzer conducted her research of declassified documents using the online resources of the National Security Archive and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Source material for works shown in this exhibition, in addition to other documents, can be found through the links below: www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/ NSAEBB214/index.htm www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/ torturefoia.html

Jenny Holzer was born in

Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1950. She attended Duke University and the University of Chicago, and received a BA from Ohio University. She received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1977. In 1976–77, Holzer participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. She lives and works in Hoosick, New York.