Screamed From Life
Artist
Allen Ruppersberg
(American, born 1944)
Date1982
MediumColor screenprint on paper
DimensionsOverall: 40 × 26 1/4in. (101.6 × 66.7cm)
ClassificationsPRINTS
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number92.26
On View
Not on viewCollections
Copyright© Allen Ruppersberg
Label TextUpdated Version:
Screamed from Life by Allen Ruppersberg emulates the garish cover art from a pulp fiction novel. Below this title are scattered articles of bizarre behavior that reproduce the look of newspaper typefaces. These are framed by handwritten statements: "I love you" and "I love you too." The combination of components speaks of relationships turned violent through greed, mental illness, or other macabre turn of events.
Ruppersberg presents conflicting clues about reality. The "articles" seem like legitimate, if strange, news items. The "book" title promises the material is "from life," but it simultaneously announces that is by Ruppersberg himself. This ambiguity about truth and representation is central to the artist’s concerns. Critic Peter Plagens has observed:
"Ruppersberg's real subject is the conflict between different types of representations and the fact that each lies (fails to account for everything) in a different way."
Mary E. Murray
Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
Allen Ruppersberg brings a sense of ironic humor to the imagery he collects, then re-fashions, from everyday printed matter. In this work Ruppersberg presents the viewer with several different kinds of text - that of a pulp fiction novel, newspapers, and handwriting.
"Screamed from Life by Allen Ruppersberg" garishly emulates the cover of a pulp fiction novel; the scattered articles of bizarre behavior re-produce the look of newspaper typefaces; and these are framed by statements written in the artist's hand: "I love you" and "I love you too." The combination of components speaks of relationships turned violent through greed, mental illness or other macabre turn of events.
Examining the material more closely, the viewer will discover that Ruppersberg presents conflicting clues about reality. The "articles" seem to be legitimate, if strange, news items. However, while the "book" title promises the material is "from life" it simultaneously announces that is by Ruppersberg himself. This ambiguity about truth and representation is central to Ruppersberg's concerns. Critic Peter Plagens has observed: "Ruppersberg's real subject is the conflict between different types of representations and the fact that each lies (fails to account for everything) in a different way."
MEM
2002
