Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is a gouache drawing by Sherrie Levine. It dates from 1991 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
About this work
Overview
The work presents a solitary clown rendered in monochrome, characterized by simplified contours and an unadorned white ground.
Sherrie Levine's Untitled, dated 1991, is a drawing executed in gouache and pencil on paper. It resides in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art. The work presents a solitary clown rendered in monochrome, characterized by simplified contours and an unadorned white ground. Its modest scale and unpolished execution distinguish it from traditional circus imagery, aligning with Levine’s broader interest in re-examining familiar visual forms.
Subject & Meaning
The figure is a clown, seated with one leg crossed, wearing a pointed hat and ruffled trousers. Its face is indistinct, the mouth exaggerated, and one hand raised as if mid-gesture. The ambiguity of expression and lack of narrative context invite interpretation beyond entertainment. Levine’s choice of this archetype may reflect on repetition in cultural imagery, stripping the clown of its usual theatrics to reveal its hollowed-out symbolism.
Technique & Style
Levine employs gouache for opaque, flat areas of black and white, paired with pencil for crisp outlines. The style is deliberately crude, avoiding modeling or texture. Bold, unrefined lines define the figure, echoing cartoon or children’s drawing conventions. Minimal shading and absence of background emphasize the figure’s isolation, reinforcing a sense of detachment from any specific performance or setting.
History & Provenance
Created in 1991, the work entered The Museum of Modern Art’s collection shortly thereafter. It is part of Levine’s ongoing engagement with reproduced and archetypal imagery, following her earlier appropriations of photographs by Walker Evans and others. Unlike her photographic works, this drawing is an original hand-made object, yet it continues her exploration of authorship and the reproduction of cultural symbols.
Context
Levine’s practice in the 1990s often revisited familiar visual motifs—clowns, nudes, landscapes—to question originality and the authority of the artist. In this period, she increasingly turned to drawing as a medium to interrogate representation without the mediation of photography. The clown, a ubiquitous figure in mass culture, becomes a vehicle for examining how meaning is constructed and eroded through repetition.
Legacy
Untitled contributes to Levine’s sustained critique of artistic originality and the institutional framing of imagery. By rendering a clichéd subject with deliberate simplicity, she challenges assumptions about skill, expression, and value in art. The work remains a quiet but persistent reference in discussions of postmodern drawing, where the act of selection and re-presentation supersedes traditional craftsmanship.
Artist & collection
Artist
Sherrie Levine is an American photographer, painter, and conceptual artist. Some of her work consists of exact photographic reproductions of the work of other photographers such as Walker Evans, Eliot Porter and Edward Weston.
