Lorna Simpson

by Okwui Enwezor (Contributor), Helaine Posner (Contributor), Hilton Als (Contributor)

Lorna Simpson is one of the leading artists of her generation, devoted to the beauty of image-making, innovatively juxtaposing the figure and gesture with text and narrative. This rich monograph, created to accompany the major retrospective of Simpson's work touring in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York (among other destinations) beginning this spring, includes insightful essays by curator and critic Okwui Enwezor and New Yorker writer Hilton Als, and a conversation with the artist, Isaac Julien, and Thelma Golden, along with 126 reproductions from Simpson's formally elegant, subtly provocative body of work-including her recent work.

Genres: Art, Photography, Nonfiction

158 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2006

About the author

Okwui Enwezor was a Nigerian curator, art critic, writer, poet, and educator, specializing in art history. He lived in New York City and Munich. In 2014, he was ranked #24 in the ArtReview list of the 100 most powerful people of the art world.

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book marks my first experience with the work of African American multimedia artist Lorna Simpson. Her photography most interests me. Simpson’s art explores important issues such as race, gender, representation, and identity, usually in an obscure manner. She states in an interview:

“I want to avoid works that are just two-dimensional or easily read in the sense that as you’re watching you think you get all the details and that’s the end of the story. I prefer gaps and contradictions so that not all the viewer’s questions are answered. In the narrative pieces, with text, I’ve always wanted to keep that open so as not to nail down a monolithic type or character within works.” (p. 138).

Given the seriousness of most of Simpson’s art pieces, I was surprised to see her reference John Water’s 1974 trashy dark comedy Female Trouble in her piece The Rock (1995) found on pages 52-53.

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[Image: Book Cover]

Citation:
Simpson, L., Enwezor, O., Posner, H., Als, H., Julien, I., Golden, T., & Momin, S.M. (2006). Lorna Simpson. American Federation of Arts.

Title: Lorna Simpson
Author(s): Lorna Simpson (works), Okwui Enwezor (essay), Helaine Posner (curator’s foreword), Hilton Als (essay), Isaac Julien (contributor), Thelma Golden (contributor), Shamim M. Momin (preface)
Year: 2006
Genre: Nonfiction - Art, photography
Page count: 158 pages
Date(s) read: 2/23/25
Book 41 in 2025
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[Trudy Ferrer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t wait to bestow this gem.