John HimmelfarbAmerican, 1946Shop Notes
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- 21 hours ago
- In this state since
- Sep 25, 2026
- Source
- The museum's own collection data
About the work
Chicago artist John Himmelfarb's concern for language led to the development of an elaborate visual vocabulary much like hieroglyphics. This print of 1992 is at first convincing as rows of verbal information, but on closer inspection proves to be dense expressionistic gibberish. Himmelfarb explained: The actual words we read are often masked or merely a facade for an underlying meaning that we can't see. That's where, in order to read critically and to derive a richer meaning from what we're looking at, we have to look at underlying meanings, hidden meanings. I think these letters are part of a dialogue about what is the difference between visual information and visual art; and visual information about visual art and visual art about visual information.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Particulars
- Accession number
- P.92.9
In the catalog
Sources
- Minneapolis Institute of Art: the museum's own open data · fetched 5 days ago
- Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — public domain
