Sherrie Levine

This watercolor was meticulously copied from a reproduction of a watercolor by the Spanish surrealist Joan Miró. It was part of Sherrie Levine’s larger project copying and photographing reproductions of the work of iconic modern artists. This work has roots in Marcel Duchamp’s “readymades,” first created in the 1910s, in which he presented objects that already existed in the world as works of art.

Levine has questioned whether any art can be completely original, stating that “choice becomes the central creative gesture when you’re working this way. . . . One of my parameters is that I only appropriate work by deceased, white, male artists.” Her intention was to subvert authority.

–Jan Howard, Houghton P. Metcalf Jr. Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs