Susan Hiller’s diverse body of work examines subjects ranging from feminism to popular culture to psychoanalysis, though the artist attests that she consistently combines “a Minimalist aesthetic with a Surrealist sensibility.” Hiller’s seminal work Dedicated to the Unknown Artists (1972-76) consists of 305 vintage postcards of rough seas arranged in a grid formation, accompanied by charts and the postcards’ captions. Hiller said of the title, “I assumed that the unknown artists were women who did the hand tinting of all these postcards.” Hiller has also created a series of homage works dedicated to artistic and cultural figures such as Gertrude Stein, Marcel Duchamp, Yves Klein, and, repeatedly, Joseph Beuys, constituting an investigation into the cult of the artist and the celebration of the artistic “genius.”
Susan Hiller’s diverse body of work examines subjects ranging from feminism to popular culture to psychoanalysis, though the artist attests that she consistently combines “a Minimalist aesthetic with a Surrealist sensibility.” Hiller’s seminal work Dedicated to the Unknown Artists (1972-76) consists of 305 vintage postcards of rough seas arranged in a grid formation, accompanied by charts and the postcards’ captions. Hiller said of the title, “I assumed that the unknown artists were women who did the hand tinting of all these postcards.” Hiller has also created a series of homage works dedicated to artistic and cultural figures such as Gertrude Stein, Marcel Duchamp, Yves Klein, and, repeatedly, Joseph Beuys, constituting an investigation into the cult of the artist and the celebration of the artistic “genius.”
