JENNY HOLZER War Paintings

Until 22 November 2015 Venice, Museo Correr-Sala delle Quattro Porte, in collaboration with the Written Art Foundation in Frankfurt, the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia promotes an exhibition, curated by Thomas Kellein, with the scientific direction of Gabriella Belli, of the American conceptual artist Jenny Holzer, a collateral event of 56.Venice Biennale.

The exhibition is a selection of paintings on a war theme by the artist, who lives and works in New York, over the course of ten years: this is a significant change compared to light LED for which she is best known. The twenty works that make up War Paintings - "paintings of war - inspired infact by some State documents relating to military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq that followed the events of September 11, 2001. Many of these documents have been made public thanks to the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act), a law that requires U.S. Government agencies to allow the free and public access to their archives, an invaluable resource for researchers, journalists and groups to protect the collective interest.

Holzer's works are taken from notes, maps, press releases, interviews, recordings and other material censored before being made public and turned into paintings and silk-screen paintings in oil on linen (multiplied in size compared to the original) that invite the visitor to read and watch.

Some critics have likened the paintings of Jenny Holzer at Andy Warhol's early work of Death and Disaster series (1960), the "writing" of Arabic calligraphy, and even anonymous road manifests with whom he began his career. Holzer says: "I wanted that the job done by hand showed caution. I wanted the touch" and adds that "the content  speaks for itself, the normalization of torture – by anyone – is reprehensible".

Museo Correr

Until November 22, 2015

Hours: daily 10:00-18:00

Info: http://correr.visitmuve.it/