Laurie Simmons

Laurie Simmons
Born1949
Far Rockaway, Queens,
New York, U.S.
EducationTyler School of Art
Known forPhotography, film, sculpture
SpouseCarroll Dunham
Children
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship, American Academy in Rome, National Endowment for the Arts
WebsiteLaurieSimmons.net
Laurie Simmons, First Bathroom/ Woman Standing, 1978.

Laurie Simmons (born 1949) is an American artist best known for her photographic and film work.[1][2] Art historians consider her a key figure of The Pictures Generation and a group of late-1970s women artists that emerged as a counterpoint to the male-dominated and formalist fields of painting and sculpture.[3][4][5] The group introduced new approaches to photography, such as staged setups, narrative, and appropriations of pop culture and everyday objects that pushed the medium toward the center of contemporary art.[6][7][8] Simmons's elaborately constructed images employ psychologically charged human proxies—dolls, ventriloquist dummies, mannequins, props, miniatures and interiors—and also depict people as dolls.[9][10] Often noted for its humor and pathos, her art explores boundaries such as between artifice and truth or private and public, while raising questions about the construction of identity, tropes of prosperity, consumerism and domesticity, and practices of self-presentation and image-making.[11][12][13] In a review of Simmons's 2019 retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, critic Steve Johnson wrote, "Collectively—and with a sly but barbed sense of humor—[her works] challenge you to think about what, if anything, is real: in our gender roles, and our cultural assumptions, and our perceptions of others."[4]

Simmons's art belongs to the public collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[14] Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),[15] Los Angeles County Museum of Art,[16] Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,[17] Hara Museum (Tokyo)[18] and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, among others.[19] She has exhibited at venues including MoMA,[15] the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles,[20] Walker Art Center[21] and Whitney Museum.[22] In 1997, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship.[23] She lives and works in New York City and Cornwall, Connecticut.[1][24]

  1. ^ a b Lubow, Arthur. "Influenced by Her Children, Laurie Simmons Exits Her Comfort Zone," The New York Times, April 27, 2018. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  2. ^ Eckardt, Steph. "How the Artist Laurie Simmons Made a Movie in Spite of Everything," W, May 2, 2017. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  3. ^ Eklund, Douglas. The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Johnson, Steve. "Laurie Simmons Talks About Her MCA Photography Show And How Daughter Lena Dunham Helped Her Explain Her Work," Chicago Tribune, February 27, 2019. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  5. ^ Shockman, Elizabeth. "Tiny furniture, art and being the mom of Lena Dunham," Public Radio International, April 16, 2016. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  6. ^ Kimmelman, Michael. "Laurie Simmons—Photographs 1978-79: 'Interiors' and 'Big Figures'," The New York Times, June 7, 2002. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  7. ^ Yablonsky, Linda. "Better, More Surreal Homes and Collages," The New York Times, February 15, 2004. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  8. ^ Johnson, Ken. "Laurie Simmons: In and Around the House," The New York Times, June 20, 2008, p. E18. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  9. ^ Sheets, Hilarie M. "In the Studio: Laurie Simmons," Art + Auction, October 2007, p. 72–78.
  10. ^ Russeth, Andrew. "Laurie Simmons: Eyes Wide Shut," ARTnews, March 4, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  11. ^ Noyes, Chandra. "Laurie Simmons' Big Career Photographing Little Things," Art & Object, February 27, 2019. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
  12. ^ Sanchez, Gabriel H. "Laurie Simmons," Artforum, April 18, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
  13. ^ Sheets, Hilarie M. "Laurie Simmons," ARTnews, April 28, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
  14. ^ Metropolitan Museum of Art. Laurie Simmons, Collection. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  15. ^ a b Museum of Modern Art. Laurie Simmons, Artists. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  16. ^ Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Laurie Simmons, Collections. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  17. ^ Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Laurie Simmons, Artist. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  18. ^ Hara Museum. "STOPGAP – Homage to Rauschenberg: Selections from the Hara Museum Collection," Exhibitions. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  19. ^ Stedelijk Museum. Sarah Charlesworth, Robert Garratt, General Idea, Peter Halley, Jeff Koons, Peter Nagy, Laurie Simmons, Collection. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  20. ^ Goldstein, Ann, Mary Jane Jacob and Catherine Gudis. A Forest of Signs: Art in the Crisis of Representation, Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1989. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  21. ^ Simmons, Laurie. Laurie Simmons: Water Ballet/Family Collision, Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, 1987
  22. ^ Whitney Museum of American Art. Laurie Simmons, Artists. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  23. ^ John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Laurie Simmons, Fellows. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  24. ^ Thornton, Sarah. "Side by Side. Carroll Dunham and Laurie Simmons, soldiering on together," The Economist, August 11, 2010.