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Monogram

Color photograph of bed with monogram sheets, pillows, and painting of white American flag on wall.
Courtesy of the Artist and Metro Pictures.

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  • Color photograph of bed with monogram sheets, pillows, and painting of white American flag on wall.

Date:

1984

Artist:

Louise Lawler
American, born 1947

About this artwork

Since the early 1980s, Louise Lawler has photographed works of art installed in auction houses, corporate headquarters, galleries, museums, and private homes in order to demonstrate how an object’s display and contextualization can shape its meaning. The resulting images transcend pure documentation. Her appropriation of works in situ addresses the broader social and economic issues that structure modes of presentation. These early photographs, often displayed as a triptych, deal with the theme of monogramming and, by extension, personal vanity. Depicting a couch with a Lacoste emblem, Alligator draws our attention to the Donald Judd sculpture above it and the reflection of the artist in its surface. Untitled shows a Jasper Johns painting, visible through the clear glass of a vitrine that exhibits Robert Rauschenberg’s oddly titled Monogram (1955–59; Moderna Museet, Stockholm). Lastly, Monogram depicts Johns’s White Flag (1955; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) hanging over a bed with a duvet lavishly embroidered with the owner’s initials. This sequence shows that Lawler is constantly making connections between various categories of signs, curatorial concerns of private collectors and museums, and the questions raised by redisplaying these pieces as the subject matter of “original” works of art.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Louise Lawler

Title

Monogram

Place

United States (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1984

Medium

Silver dye-bleach print

Edition

Artist's proof 1 of 1, from an edition of 5

Dimensions

100.3 × 71.1 cm (39 1/2 × 28 in.); frame: 104.8 × 74.9 cm (41 1/4 × 29 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Through prior gift of Leo Guthman; through prior bequest of Marguerita S. Ritman

Reference Number

2006.170

Copyright

Courtesy of the Artist and Metro Pictures.

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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