Louise Lawler and Others

Book excerpt: Louise Lawler subjects the concept of art to critical analysis by re-photographing her own drawings, paintings, and sculptures and incorporating aspects of their immediate surrounding into these "copies." Viewed with a certain detachment, her demystified reproductions also reveal the contextual and situational connotations of her artworks, which recede to a certain extent into the background. Lawler also applies these methods to the work of other artists, photographing their art pieces, particularly as they are mounted in private collections. These contextualizing photographs retain fragments of their surroundings, thus clarifying how the presentation and interpretation of artwork is never free of value judgment or environmental influence. This publication offers the first retrospective overview of the artistic accomplishments of Louise Lawler over the past 20 years. Included are a number of very recent works, some of them created especially for this book.