Conceptual artist Sherrie Levine achieved notoriety in the late 1970s for her blatant appropriation of High Modernist masterpieces and related critique of contemporary artistic value systems. In this vein, MOCA Focus: Sherrie Levine: Newborn comprised nine recreations of Constantin Brancusi's marble sculpture Newborn (1915) in black glass, each placed atop a highly polished, black grand piano. Juxtaposing the meticulous craftsman’s work with readymade consumer objects, thereby recalling the practice of Marcel Duchamp, Levine de-valorized both artists by repeating each pair multiple times, undermining the fetish of individuality in modern and contemporary art. Levine’s choice to recreate Newborn accentuates the feminist dimension of her critique, preferring the cyclicality and multiplicity of reproduction over the tired cult of male genius.
The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue.
Focus Series: Sherrie Levine: Newborn was part of the museum’s Focus Series (1992–1998), which was dedicated to presentations of distinct bodies of work by artists working in all media and featured a roster of distinguished local and international artists.
Co-organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Portikus Frankfurt am Main.