Engraving Freedom of Choice Print - Jenny Holzer 2006

Since 1989, the Musée du Louvre and GrandPalaisRmn have commissioned contemporary artists to produce engraved plates for the Louvre Chalcographie, to produce exclusive prints without limiting the size of the run.

These plates represent highly contrasting trends in contemporary art. Geneviève Asse rubs shoulders with Georg Baselitz, Pierre Courtin, Jean-Pierre Pincemin, Pat Steir, Jean-Michel Alberola, Robert Morris, Louise Bourgeois, Markus Raetz, Pierre Alechinsky and Agathe May.

Influenced by minimal and conceptual art, Jenny Holzer's work is built around writing, sculpture and architecture. She broadcasts her own texts in public spaces, particularly through the use of LEDs. Her media can be as diverse as electronic signs, posters, T-shirts, cars, or monuments from all over the world. For her, art must exist at street level and be accessible: "I used language because I wanted to offer content that people - not necessarily art people - could understand." Adopting the form and language of marketing, her powerful writing forces the passive audience to adopt a critical stance. Commissioned by the Festival d'Automne in Paris in 2001, she created a series of projections on various monuments, including the Louvre. The heliogravure produced for the occasion bears witness to this, but is primarily a work of art in itself: the artist has retouched the plate, notably by adding the moon.
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