- Swan Lake, Lincoln Center
Sheet: 16 × 19 15/16 in.
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Louise Lawler is an
artist who creates photographic work often accompanied by a text, and she has
used the camera as her primary artistic medium since the late 1960s. Much of
her work deals with “appropriation” in relation to “the pleasure of viewing.” Swan Lake, Lincoln Center is a case in
point.
She first sent out an announcement card that
read, “Louise Lawler invites you to attend Swan
Lake performed by the New York City Ballet at the New York State Theater,
Lincoln Center, Thursday, January 22, 1981, 8 pm. Tickets to be purchased at
the box office.” She then created the photograph of the performance from her
seat at Lincoln Center. With this simple act, Lawler claimed an entire
performance of the ballet company. She did not interfere or intervene with the
ballet company’s role, but simply reframed it as her event. In other words,
through the announcement card and the photograph, she “appropriated” the event.
Lawler is recognized as part of the “Pictures”
generation (named after an exhibition of the same title held at Artist’s Space
in New York City in 1977), a group of the city’s downtown artists who came of
age in the early 1970s. It includes Cindy Sherman, Sherrie Levine, and Laurie
Simmons.
ProvenanceAllan Chasanoff, New York; given to MFAH, 1991.
Exhibition HistoryLoaned to San Antonio Museum of Art for "American Photography: A History in Pictures," from April 21 to July 31, 1994 (LN:94.24).
"Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Brown Foundation Galleries, February 21 - May 9, 2010.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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