In 2012, Jenny Holzer (b. 1950) returned to painting with her Top Secret series, transforming declassified CIA documents into one of her most forceful bodies of work.
Drawn from records released through the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act, the series confronts the use of waterboarding during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Rather than reproducing the documents through conventional printing, Holzer painstakingly recreated them by hand using black and white paper pulp, pressing the sheets wet-on-wet in a process that deliberately echoes the physical implications of the work's title.
At first glance, this work appears almost abstract. Monumental black geometric forms dominate the white surface, recalling the austere visual language of Kazimir Malevich, Ad Reinhardt, and Richard Serra. Yet the scattered fragments of visible text—and above all the isolated "water board"—abruptly shift the work from Modernist abstraction to political testimony. The dense black forms become tangible acts of censorship, preserving the original documents' erasures while exposing the systems of concealment that produced them.
Holzer observes, "I thought perhaps it's just as important to show what you'll never know, or you won't know until much later." That tension between revelation and obscurity lies at the heart of the work. Whether visible or concealed, language becomes an instrument of accountability, compelling viewers to confront the mechanisms of secrecy, power, and state violence that persist beneath the surface.
Holzer is one of the most prominent and original American artists. In 1990 she was the first woman to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale, and won the Leone D'Oro - the event's top honor. This is a rare opportunity to acquire an affordable work by one of the most distinctive artists of the 20th century.Â
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"Water board 0000090", 2012
Stencilled paper pulp print on handmade cotton denim paper
Signed and annotated P7 in white pencil, verso
From an unknown edition
Published by Griffelkunst-Vereinigung Hamburg e.V, Hamburg
Printed by Werkstatt fĂĽr Papier, Gangolf Ulbricht, Berlin
35”H 27”W (work)
38.75"H 31"W (framed with museum glass)
Very good condition
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