Plexi (adjusted to fit)
Information about the artwork
- Year2010/2011
- MaterialDigitalprint on PVC-foil
- Year of acquisition2013
- Inventory numberUAB 1132
- On viewCurrently not exhibited
- Copyright© Louise Lawler. Photo: Museum Brandhorst, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich
More about the artwork
Since the early 1980s, Louise Lawler has been photographing art as it is exhibited in museums and private collections, presented for sale at auction, stored in depots, or being restored in museums. “Plexi (adjusted to fit)” shows four of Andy Warhol’s famous “Boxes,” created from the mid-1960s onward. What appears at first sight as an arbitrary arrangement turns out upon closer inspection to be a display in a museum. Each of the boxes has a Plexiglas cover and is as such protected from any possible intrusion on the part of the viewer. Originally produced in series by Warhol, the objects are now highly-priced works of art, which are carefully looked after by museums—a conflict of interest which can be clearly seen in the presentation of Warhol’s “Boxes.”
Lawler’s photograph is shown in the form of wallpaper, adjusted to fit the proportions of the wall on which it is mounted. She thus places the focus not only on the content but also on the space itself. She shows what we usually ignore when looking at pictures—the wall and, with it, the institutional framework in which art is presented.
