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Meltdown

1989
Sherrie Levine (American, born 1947) Printed by Derrière L'Etoile Studios, New York Published by Peter Blum Edition, New York
In this portfolio, Levine continues her practice of borrowing from artists of the past to make her own art, thus challenging concepts of individuality and originality. Here she uses computer technology to generate geometric imagery based on four works by well-known European artists. She scanned slides of a mustachioed Mona Lisa by Marcel Duchamp, a cathedral facade by Claude Monet, a Berlin street scene by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and an abstract composition by Piet Mondrian into a computer program that averaged the colors in each work into twelve separate fields. In essence Levine has merged four distinct artistic movements into a single, synthetic style.

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