Lorna Simpson
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| Lorna Simpson | |
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| File:LornaSimpsonApr09 cropped.jpg
Simpson in April 2009
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| Born | Lorna Simpson 1960 Brooklyn, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | University of California-San Diego, MFA, 1985; School of Visual Arts, New York, BFA, 1983 |
| Known for | Photography, Film, Video |
| Movement | Conceptual photography |
| Awards | 2010 ICP Infinity Award in Art, International Center of Photography, New York |
Lorna Simpson (born 1960) is an African-American artist and photographer who made her name in the 1980s and 1990s with artworks such as Guarded Conditions and Square Deal.
Background
Born in Brooklyn, New York, she attended the High School of Art and Design and the School of Visual Arts in New York, and then the University of California, San Diego. Her earliest work was as a documentary street photographer, before moving her observations of race and society into her studio.[1] Simpson began exploring ethnic divisions in the 1980s era of multiculturalism. Her most notable works combine words with photographs of anonymously cropped images of women and occasionally men. While the pictures may appear straightforward, the text will often confront the viewer with the underlying racism still found in American culture.
Simpson first came to prominence in the 1980s for her large-scale works that combined photography and text and defied traditional conceptions of gender, identity, race, culture, history, and memory. Drawing on this work, she started to create large photos printed on felt that showed public but unnoticed sexual encounters. Recently, Simpson has experimented with film as well as continuing to work with photography.[2]
2 gelatin silver prints and 11 engraved plastic plaques, 40 x 100 in.,
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Simpson's 1989 work, Necklines, shows two circular and identical photographs of a black woman's mouth, chin, neck, and collar bone. The white text, “ring, surround, lasso, noose, eye, areola, halo, cuffs, collar, loop”, individual words on black plaques, imply menace, binding or worse. The final phrase, text on red “feel the ground sliding from under you,” openly suggests lynching, though the adjacent images remain serene, non-confrontational and elegant.[3]
Simpson has explored various media and techniques, including two-dimensional photographs as well as silk screening her photographs on large felt panels, creating installations, or producing as video works such as Call Waiting (1997).[4] She was the first Black woman to participate at the Venice Biennale.[5] In a recent video work, Corridor (2003), Simpson sets two women side-by-side; a household servant from 1860 and a wealthy homeowner from 1960. Both women are portrayed by artist Wangechi Mutu, allowing parallel and haunting relationships to be drawn.[6] She has commented "I do not appear in any of my work. I think maybe there are elements to it and moments to it that I use from my own personal experience, but that, in and of itself, is not so important as what the work is trying to say about either the way we interpret experience or the way we interpret things about identity."[4]
Her work often portrays black women combined with text to express contemporary society's relationship with race, ethnicity and sex.
Simpson's work has been displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Miami Art Museum, the Walker Art Center, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art.[2] In 2007, Simpson had a 20-year retrospective of her work at the Whitney Museum of American Art in her hometown of New York City.[4][6]
Private life
Simpson lives in Brooklyn with her husband, photographer James Casebere, and their daughter Zora.[5]
Awards
- 1989 Artists’ Space Board of Directors, New York, NY
- 1990 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, New York, NY
- 1998 Finalist, Hugo Boss Prize 1998, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, NY
- 2001 The Whitney Museum of American Art Award sponsored by Cartier and the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, New York, NY
- 2003 Distinguished Artist-In-Residence, Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY
- 2014 Shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014 for her self-titled exhibition in Paris.[7]
Further reading
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- Brockington, Horace. "Logical Anonymity: Lorna Simpson, Steve McQueen, Stan Douglas." International Review of African American Art 15 No. 3 (1998): 20-29.
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References
- ↑ Annenberg Foundation. "A World of Art. Biographical Sketch: Lorna Simpson."
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.lsimpsonstudio.com/#mi=11&pt=0&pi=6&p=-1&a=-1&at=0
- ↑ National Gallery of Art (2005-05-04). "National Gallery of Art Acquires Important Contemporary Works by Brodthaers, Lewitt, Morris, and Simpson."
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Arango, Jorge (May 2002). "At home with Lorna Simpson: a major player in the world of photography and video composes her personal sanctuary - home." Essence.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Cotter, Holland (2007-03-02). "Exploring Identity as a Problematic Condition." The New York Times.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
