Lorna Simpson
Author(s): Thelma Golden
Lorna Simpson's well-known fragmented photographs combining with fragments of text create mysterious and quiet works that reflect the silence of a portion of society - African-American women - rarely if ever represented in art. Simpson is credited for being among the first to bring the ideas and forms of much contemporary art to address her specific identity as a black woman. Like Roni Horn she combines the precepts of minimal art - seriality, colourlessness, simplicity, geometric forms - with her personal biography and interests. Like the photographic school of Bernd and Hilla Becher, she adopts a documentary style in "objectively" depicting her subjects - which recalls, moreover, techniques for identifying criminals. Like Cindy Sherman, she assumes a personality for her unusual self-portraiture: in this case, an unadorned, unidentifiable black woman. Yet despite the connections with other major artists of her generation, Simpson's work is unique and unmistakable in its imagery, use of text, and subject matter. Her work in film adds a new dimension, the spoken voice, to the work. Simpson is considered to be one of America's key representatives of black visual culture.
A characteristic example of her work is "Guarded Conditions" (1989), a photo-piece in which Simpson assembles fragmented Polaroid images of her body. With her fist clenched behind her back, face turned away from the viewer, Simpson isolates one emblematic gesture and demonstrates a refusal to be "framed" conventionally. The repetition of the words "sex attacks/skin attacks" below the body emphasizes the origin of Simpson's pose: her body is in a state of being "guarded" from the attacks she anticipates as a result of her sexual identity and the colour of her skin. The formal treatment of the image reinforces the sense of attack and protection - the artist's body is severed and serialized, as if ritually segmented, denying the viewer an opportunity to see her whole. Simpson has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including the 1991 Whitney Biennial and the seminal "Decade" show of 1990. Her works are in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Walker Art Center, The Denver Art Museum, City of Chicago Art Collection, The Brooklyn Museum, The Baltimore Museum of Art and the University of New Mexico among other major collections.
General Information
- :
- : Phaidon Press Ltd
- : Phaidon Press Ltd
- : 0.984
- : 29 September 2002
- : United Kingdom
- : books
Other Specifications
- : Thelma Golden
- : Paperback
- : 770.92
- : 160
- : 120 colour and 30 b&w illustrations, chronology, bibliography
More About The Product
'The boldest, best executed, and most far-reaching publishing project devoted to contemporary art. These books will revolutionize the way contemporary art is presented and written about.' (Artforum) 'The combination of intelligent analysis, personal insight, useful facts and plentiful pictures is a superb format; invaluable for specialists but also interesting for casual readers, it makes these books a must for the library of anyone who cares about contemporary art.' (Time Out) 'A unique series of informative monographs on individual artists.' (The Sunday Times)
Kellie Jones (Survey) is a New York-based art historian and curator who specializes in art of the African Diaspora, Latin American and Contemporary art. She has held curatorial positions at the Studio Museum, The Broida Museum, and the Jamaica Arts Center, all in New York. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Departments of History of Art and African American Studies at Yale University. Thelma Golden (Interview) is head curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, where she is curating Lorna Simpson's Autumn 2002 exhibition. Formerly associate curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, where she curated the controversial 'Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary Art' (1994), she was also special projects curator for the Peter Norton contemporary art collection, New York. Chrissie Iles (Focus), is a British curator and critic, curator of Film and Video at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Her recent exhibitions include 'Into the Light: The Projected Image in American Art 1964 - 1977'. From 1987-97 she was Head of Exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art Oxford, where her exhibitions included surveys of Sol LeWitt, Louise Bourgeois and Gary Hill. For his Artist's Choice Simpson has selected the play 'Top Dog/UnderDog' by the 1985 MacArthur Foundation Genius Award recipient, Suzan Lori Parks. Artist's Writings by Lorna Simpson include project notes for such films as Recollection, and reminiscences of her non-art working past, including the ecretarial employment in the early 1980s which subsidized her artwork
