Sherrie Levine (b. 1947). Sons and Lovers, 1976-1977. Fluorescent tempera on graph paper. 22 x 28 inches (55.9 x 71.1 cm...

Description

Sherrie Levine (b. 1947)
Sons and Lovers, 1976-1977
Fluorescent tempera on graph paper
22 x 28 inches (55.9 x 71.1 cm) (sheet)

PROVENANCE:
The artist;
Private collection, New York, gift from the above.

EXHIBITED:
Artists Space, New York (and elsewhere), "Pictures: Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, Philip Smith," September 24-October 7, 1978.

LITERATURE:
D. Crimp, ed., Pictures: Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, Philip Smith, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1977, pp. 16-19.

The following three unique works on paper by Sherrie Levine are part of a suite of thirty-six- featuring silhouetted heads, executed in fluorescent tempera on graph paper. The drawings depict five distinct "characters" in profile: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and a couple. The presidents' silhouettes evoke familiar emblems found on coins, while the other profiles are sourced from wig advertisements. Each drawing pairs a presidential profile with that of an innocuous unknown couple, creating an ambiguous narrative that recurs throughout the series.

These three works were exhibited in the seminal 'Pictures' group exhibition in 1977 at Artists Space in New York City, curated by art historian and critic Douglas Crimp. The artists included in this exhibition were emerging talents who later became known as the Pictures Generation artist group, named for the exhibition title and including Levine, Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, and Robert Longo. As Douglas Crimp notes about Levine's Sons and Lovers series in the exhibition catalog, "The act of confrontation...is the only psychological relationship fully stated by the images...Levine's genre is the melodrama, where the cliché is the vehicle for the larger-than-life story" (Crimp, Douglas, 'Pictures', Artists Space, September 24 - October 29, 1977, p. 16). Levine's early works on paper possess significant provenance and serve as foundational pieces for her later explorations in photography and appropriation art.




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