Elaine Sturtevant

Elaine Sturtevant
Born Elaine Frances Horan
(1924-08-23)August 23, 1924
Lakewood, Ohio, United States
Died May 7, 2014(2014-05-07) (aged 89)
Paris, France
Known for appropriation art, conceptual art
Awards La Biennale di Venezia Golden Lion, 2011

Elaine Frances Sturtevant, (née Horan; August 23, 1924 – May 7, 2014), also known simply as "Sturtevant", was an American artist. She achieved recognition for her carefully inexact repetitions of other artists' works that prefigured appropriation.

Early life and education

Elaine Frances Horan was born on 23 August 1924, in Lakewood, Ohio, near Cleveland.[1] She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Iowa, followed by a master’s in the field from Teachers College of Columbia University. In New York, she also studied at the Art Students League.

Work

Sturtevant's earliest known paintings were made in New York in the late 1950s. In these works, she sliced open tubes of paint, flattened them, and attached them to canvas.[2] Most of these works contain fragments from tubes of several colors of paint, some have additional pencil scribbles and daubs of paint.[2] Sturtevant was close friends with Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, both of whom own paintings from this period.[2] In 1964, by memorization only, she began to manually reproduce paintings and objects created by her contemporaries with results that can immediately be identified with an original, at a point that turned the concept of originality on its head.[3][4] She initially focused on works by such American artists as Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol.[5] Warhol gave Sturtevant one of his silkscreens so she could produce her own versions of his "Flowers" paintings, and when asked about his technique, once said, "I don't know. Ask Elaine."[6] After a Jasper Johns flag painting that was a component of Robert Rauschenberg's combine “Short Circuit” was stolen, Rauschenberg commissioned Sturtevant to paint a reproduction, which was subsequently incorporated into the combine.[7] In the late 1960s, Sturtevant concentrated on replicating works by Joseph Beuys and Duchamp. In a 1967 photograph, she and Rauschenberg pose as a nude Adam and Eve, roles originally played by Marcel Duchamp and Brogna Perlmutter in a 1924 picture shot by Man Ray.[8]

In the early 1970s, Sturtevant stopped exhibiting art for more than 10 years.[9] That happened shortly after having successively a negative reception for her show Studies done for Beuys' Action and objects, Duchamps' etc. Including film at the Everson Museum, in 1973, and her entourage crisis starting with the Claes Oldenburg big upset for having, in 1967, The Store of Claes Oldenburg exhibition (read here the subtle title adjustment from its original Oldenburg exhibition The Store by Claes Oldenburg) just a few blocs away from where the original exhibition actually happened, in 1961.

From the early 1980s she focused on the next generation of artists, including Robert Gober, Anselm Kiefer, Paul McCarthy, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. She mastered painting, sculpture, photography and film in order to produce a full range of copies of the works of her chosen artists. In most cases, her decision to start copying an artist happened before those artists achieved broader recognition. Nearly all of the artists she chose to copy are today considered iconic for their time or style. This has given rise to discussions among art critics on how it had been possible for Sturtevant to identify those artists at such an early stage.

In 1991, Sturtevant presented an entire show consisting of her repetition of Warhol’s ‘Flowers’ series.

Her later works mainly focus on reproductions in the digital age. Sturtevant commented on her work at her 2012 retrospective Sturtevant: Image over Image at the Moderna Museet: "What is currently compelling is our pervasive cybernetic mode, which plunks copyright into mythology, makes origins a romantic notion, and pushes creativity outside the self. Remake, reuse, reassemble, recombine - that's the way to go."[10]

After feeling misunderstood by critics and artists, Sturtevant stopped making art for a decade. Her November exhibition at MoMA was the first significant exhibition in the US in decades.

Later life

She had lived in Paris since the early 1990s.

She died on 7 May 2014[11] in Paris, where she lived and worked.[12]

Comments

Peter Eleey: “In some ways, style is her medium. She was the first postmodern artist — before the fact — and also the last.”[13]

Exhibitions and Awards

Sturtevant had her first her solo show in 1965 at the Bianchini Gallery.[14] In the early 1970s, she showed with German art dealer Reinhard Onnasch.[15]

Solo exhibitions of her work have since been mounted at:

Recognition

In 2008 Sturtevant was awarded the Francis J. Greenburger Award.[21]

On 4 June 2011, Sturtevant received the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 54th Venice Biennale.[22]

In September 2013, she was awarded the Kurt Schwitters Prize for Lifetime Achievement by the Sprengel Museum.[23]

Art market

In 2007, an original Crying Girl by Roy Lichtenstein sold at auction for $78,400; in 2011, Sturtevant’s canvas reworking of Crying Girl — the only Sturtevant painting of its kind in existence — sold for $710,500.[24] In 2014, Lichtenstein, Frighten Girl (1966) sold at Christie's for $3.4 million.[25] Shortly after, Warhol Diptych (1973) was sold for $5,093,000 at Christie's in New York.[26]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Elaine Sturtevant" 032c, Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Eleey, Peter (2014). Sturtevant. New York, NY: MoMA. p. 50. ISBN 9780870709494.
  3. ↑ Eleey, Peter (2014). Sturtevant. New York, NY: MoMA. p. 53. ISBN 9780870709494.
  4. ↑ Main, MMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am (2005). Sturtevant : catalogue raisonné, 1964-2004 : Gemälde, Skulptur, Film und Video = painting, sculpture, film and video. Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany: Hatje Cantz. p. 44. ISBN 9783775714853.
  5. ↑ Searle, Adrian. "Elaine Sturtevant: queen of copycats" The Guardian, Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  6. ↑ "Erase and Rewind" Frieze Magazine, Retrieved 8 March 2014
  7. ↑ Carol Vogel (June 9, 2011), Now Starring in Chicago, a Prime Rauschenberg New York Times.
  8. ↑ Holland Cotter (November 13, 2014), Taking Copycatting to a Higher Level – ‘Sturtevant: Double Trouble,’ a Career Retrospective at MoMA New York Times.
  9. ↑ Holland Cotter (November 13, 2014), Taking Copycatting to a Higher Level – ‘Sturtevant: Double Trouble,’ a Career Retrospective at MoMA New York Times.
  10. ↑ Sturtevant, Elaine. "Sturtevant" Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  11. ↑ Artforum, May 7, 2014
  12. ↑ Sturtevant Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris/Salzburg.
  13. ↑ FOX, MARGALIT. "Elaine Sturtevant, Who Borrowed Others' Work Artfully, Is Dead at 89".
  14. ↑ Bruce Hainley, Erase and Rewind: Elaine Sturtevant Frieze, Issue 53, June–August 2000.
  15. ↑ Gareth Harris (October 9, 2013), Not for Sale: A Curator’s Guide to Diversity of Postwar Art International Herald Tribune.
  16. ↑ Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  17. ↑ Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  18. ↑ Sturtevant: Leaps Bumps and Jumps exhibition 2013 Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  19. ↑ Retrieved 4 December 2014.
  20. ↑ Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  21. ↑ "Past Awards: 2008" Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  22. ↑ "La Biennale di Venezia Golden Lion 2011"
  23. ↑ "Sturtevant" Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  24. ↑ Margalit Fox (May 16, 2014), Elaine Sturtevant, Appropriation Artist, Is Dead at 89 New York Times.
  25. ↑ Holland Cotter (November 13, 2014), Taking Copycatting to a Higher Level – ‘Sturtevant: Double Trouble,’ a Career Retrospective at MoMA New York Times.
  26. ↑ Sturtevant, Warhol Diptych (1973) Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, 13 May 2015, New York.

Further reading

External links

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