Sherrie Levine

Definition

Sherrie Levine is an American artist known for her work in appropriation art, where she recontextualizes existing imagery to question authorship and originality. Her practice involves taking photographs or artworks by other artists and presenting them as her own, challenging traditional notions of creativity and ownership in the art world. This approach is significant for understanding how popular imagery can be transformed and critiqued through contemporary artistic practices.

5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

1. Sherrie Levine gained prominence in the 1980s as part of the feminist art movement, using her work to highlight issues of gender and authorship.
2. Her famous piece 'After Walker Evans' involves taking a photograph from the renowned photographer Walker Evans and presenting it as her own, raising questions about copyright and intellectual property.
3. Levine's work often invites viewers to reconsider their assumptions about originality and the value placed on individual artistic expression.
4. She has been associated with a larger trend of appropriation in contemporary art that includes artists like Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman, who also challenge traditional definitions of authorship.
5. Levine's practice emphasizes the role of the viewer in interpreting art, suggesting that meaning is not solely created by the artist but is also shaped by the audience's context and experience.

Review Questions

• How does Sherrie Levine's approach to appropriation challenge traditional concepts of authorship in art?
  • Sherrie Levine's approach to appropriation directly challenges traditional concepts of authorship by presenting works that are not original creations but rather reproductions of existing artworks. By taking images or objects from other artists and displaying them as her own, Levine calls into question who holds the rights to create or claim ownership over an artwork. This prompts discussions about the nature of creativity itself and whether originality is essential to artistic value.
• Discuss the significance of Sherrie Levine's work within the context of feminist art practices.
  • Sherrie Levine's work holds significant importance within feminist art practices as it critiques the male-dominated narratives surrounding authorship and artistic legitimacy. By appropriating works typically created by male artists, she highlights how women's contributions have often been overlooked in art history. Her pieces serve as a form of resistance against patriarchal structures in the art world, emphasizing that women can also participate in defining what constitutes art through recontextualization.
• Evaluate how Sherrie Levine's artistic methods reflect broader postmodern ideas regarding culture and originality.
  • Sherrie Levine's artistic methods exemplify broader postmodern ideas by subverting the notion of originality and embracing cultural recycling. In a postmodern context, originality is often viewed with skepticism, and Levine's work demonstrates this by showing that new meanings can emerge from existing images when placed in different contexts. This reflects a shift towards valuing reinterpretation over creation, aligning with postmodernism's focus on fragmentation, pastiche, and the complexities of cultural representation.

Related terms

Appropriation: The act of taking existing objects or images and reusing them in a new context, often to challenge the original meaning or to comment on cultural issues.

Recontextualization: The process of placing an object or image into a new context, which can alter its meaning and influence how it is perceived.

Postmodernism: A broad movement in art and culture that emerged in the late 20th century, characterized by skepticism toward grand narratives, celebration of fragmentation, and the questioning of originality.