First Statement
Second Statement
Biography
Anxiety of Influence, a one act
After Sherrie Levine, a one act
(b Hazelton, PA, 17 April 1947). American photographer and conceptual artist. Studied at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (BA 1969, MFA 1973). Biographygraphical information is limited, because of a refusal to participate in "myth-making" associated with art production. First gained critical attention in the early 1980s, when associated with Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, David Salle and others known as "Appropriationists" for drawing on existing imagery from "high" and "low" culture. Works have been interpreted as a commentary on the death of Modernism and its ideals, notions of artistic originality, the authenticity and autonomy of the art object and its status as a commodity. Untitled (after Walker Evans) (photograph, 1981) re-photographed a reproduction of a photograph by Evans. Such works articulated fascinations with the photographic processes and their reproduction, while raising post-structuralist discourses on authorship, originality and history, from which they partly derive. Theoretical rigour was complemented by a delicate, timid, if not remote, handling of materials, adding a sensuous dimension to an otherwise academic pursuit.