{
"data": {
"id": 338399,
"accession_number": "2019.19",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Laments: Death came and he looked like..., 1987. Jenny Holzer (American, b.1950). L.E.D. sign, marble; 325.1 x 24.1 x 13.3 cm (128 x 9 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.); 45.7 x 61 x 137.2 cm (18 x 24 x 54 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller, 2019.19. \u00a9 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York",
"current_location": "229A Contemporary",
"title": "Laments: Death came and he looked like...",
"creation_date": "1987",
"creation_date_earliest": 1987,
"creation_date_latest": 1987,
"artists_tags": [
"female"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "L.E.D. sign, marble",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Contemporary Art",
"collection": "CONTEMP - Sculpture",
"type": "Mixed Media",
"measurements": "325.1 x 24.1 x 13.3 cm (128 x 9 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.); 45.7 x 61 x 137.2 cm (18 x 24 x 54 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"No Extent Specified": {
"height": 0.457,
"height_inch": 18,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.61,
"width_inch": 24,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"depth": 1.372,
"depth_inch": 54,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York",
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Jenny Holzer: Laments 1988-1989. Dia Chelsea, New York (March 2, 1989-February 18, 1990)",
"opening_date": "1989-03-02T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Collection of the artist",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1987-?",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": null,
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "(Christie's, New York, NY, May 17, 2000, no. 192)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2000",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Cheim & Read, New York, NY, sold to Private Collection, Dallas, TX",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": null,
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "Private Collection, Dallas, TX, consigned to sell, New York, NY",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-2019",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "Sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2019",
"sortorder": 6
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2019-",
"sortorder": 7
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The same text is displayed in motion on the LED sign and static on the surface of the sarcophagus.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Jenny Holzer created her Laments series, to which this work belongs, as a response to the HIV / AIDS epidemic. The Laments are based on 13 texts written by Holzer, which she has described as \u201cvoices of the dead.\u201d In Laments: Death came and he looked like . . . , Holzer gave form to each text as an engraving carved into the tops of sculptures resembling sarcophagi and as words that flow across LED signs. Together these two representations both memorialize the dead and endow their voices with immediacy.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79876098"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "\"New in the Galleries.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 59, no. 5 (September/October 2019): Back cover.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: Back cover.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Auping, Michael, ed. Jenny Holzer (Universe Women Artists). New York: Universe, 1992.",
"page_number": "40-43, 52, 56, 64, 82, 93, 96, 103-104 and 106.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Auping, Michael. Jenny Holzer: The Venice Installation. Exh. Cat. Buffalo, NY: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1991.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Breslin, David, ed. Jenny Holzer. Exh. Cat. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2008.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Ferguson, Bruce. \u201cWordsmith: an interview with Jenny Holzer.\u201d Art in America 74, no. 12 (December 1986).",
"page_number": "108",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Hughes, Gordon. \u201cPower\u2019s Script: Or, Jenny Holzer\u2019s Art after \u2018Art after Philosophy,\u2019\u201d Oxford Art Journal 29, no. 3 (2006).",
"page_number": "419-440",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Joselit, David, et al. Jenny Holzer. London: Phaidon, 2003.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "After the Revolution: Women Who Transformed Contemporary Art. Munich, London, and New York: Prestel Verlag, 2007.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Siegel, Jeanne \u201cJenny Holzer\u2019s Language Games.\u201d Arts Magazine 60, no. 4 (December 1985).",
"page_number": "64-68",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Taylor, Paul. \u201cJenny Holzer: I wanted to do a portrait of society.\u201d Flash Art International 151 (March/April 1990).",
"page_number": "116-119",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Waldman, Diane, ed. Jenny Holzer. Exh. Cat. Guggenheim Museum Publications: New York, 1989.",
"page_number": "92-97",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Holzer, Jenny. Jenny Holzer: Laments. Exh. Cat. New York: Dia Art Foundation, 1989.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Liebert, Emily and Fellah, Nadiah. \u201cAcquisitions 2019: Contemporary Art.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 60, no. 2 (March/April 2020): 18-19.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 19; Mentioned: P. 18.",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2019.19",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": "Toby's Gallery for Contemporary Art",
"athena_id": 338399,
"creators": [
{
"id": 497,
"description": "Jenny Holzer (American, b.1950)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1950",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 0
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2019-03-04T00:00:00-05:00",
"sortable_date": 1987,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1987",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "cover",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:54:01.797000"
}
}