Louise Lawler
b. 1947, United States
The Desert and a bit of Mountain II, 2007
Chromogenic colour print
100.6 x 100.6 cm
The Desert and a bit of Mountain II is one of Louise Lawler’s photographs showing the works of Agnes Martin and Alexander Calder displayed on the walls of Christie’s, an auction house. Yet, it is difficult for one to infer the correct location by looking at the photograph alone, as they are more likely to think of a museum space. Indeed, this photograph was taken at a time when the boundaries between museums and auction houses were beginning to blur, as auction houses started producing museum-level presentations and catalogues. As the institutional and commercial aspects of art become entangled in each other, how does one know if the value of an artwork is determined by its institutional appeal or its commercial success? As Lawler’s early photography relied on visual contrasts between different contexts to provoke discussion, her later embracement of the lack thereof also highlights the increasing social complexity of the art world over time.
Photo: Hans Peter Schaefer
Louise Lawler (b. 1947) is an American artist and photographer who is a key figure of the Pictures Generation, an artist collective well-known for their critical analysis of media culture. By taking pictures of artworks in the context of which they are exhibited, installed, bought, and sold, Lawler spotlights the typically unseen yet highly pertinent aspect of the art world as a market, prompting audiences to question what exactly makes up their perceived artistic value of an artwork, among other ties that art has with the rest of the economic sphere. Through the continuous reframing and re-staging of her photographs in site-specific ways, Lawler does not shy away from critiquing her own involvement in the artworld either. Having presented solo exhibitions in arts institutions worldwide such as the Collection Lambert, Avignon (2023), Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (2019–2021), and Sammlung Verbund, Vienna (2018), her artworks are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim, and the Tate Modern, among others.
