The Princess, Now the Queen

Most of Louise Lawler’s art consists of photographs showing not only works done by other artists, but also the specific setting of these works. Since the early 1980s she has photographed such works of art in museums, galleries,storage rooms, private collections, and homes.

Lawler took this picture of Andy Warhol’s Portrait of Crown Princess Sonja (1982) in a storage room at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Lawler has used Andy Warhol’s pictures on several previous occasions, and has also photographed other works in the National Museum’s collection.

Lawler is an appropriation artist who creates new works of art by quoting or using preexisting cultural expressions such as film clips, advertisements, and paintings. Appropriation is a technique that is linked to postmodernism, most particularly to a certain group called the Pictures Generation, of which Lawler was a member. The group, which was active in New York in the 1970s and 1980s, included such well-known artists as Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, and Barbara Krüger, and it was highly influential in discussions on the nature and political significance of art.

In her photographs, Louise Lawler continuously reminds the viewer that a work of art is an object or a product. Art is bought, sold, and owned, and who owns this art and how it is shown is part of the work’s meaning. Lawler queries both the origins of art and the notion of identity that is invested in the work. What does an institution’s collection say about its status? What does art belonging to a private collector say about that person’s taste and cultural standing?