Page 105 - Highlights of the Collection

Jenny Holzer [b. 1950]

For the Louvre Abu Dhabi,
2017

Permanent installation: Louvre Abu Dhabi, United Arab
Emirates, 2017
Left page: Essais by Michel de Montaigne, 1592
H. 7.50 × W. 14 m and H. 7.50 × W. 9 m, Marbella limestone relief
Right detail: The Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldun, 1377
H. 11 × W. 11.5 m and H. 11 × W. 6.5 m, Marbella limestone relief
Not illustrated: Mesopotamian text in Sumerian and Akkadian
cuneiform signs, ca. 1250 BCE, H. 11 × W. 13.5 m, Macael
marble relief

Specially commissioned by Louvre Abu Dhabi, this
monumental work by Jenny Holzer was designed
to be in dialogue with the building. The artist had
three ancient texts engraved on huge stone panels that
were later integrated into the walls of the museum.
Written in Sumerian and Akkadian cuneiform script,
the first poetic text relates the myth of the creation of
humanity in the Mesopotamian culture. The second
text, in Naskh Arabic script, is part of the Muqaddimah
by Ibn Khaldun, considered the father of modern
historiography. The third one, in French, an excerpt
from Michel de Montaigne's Essais, deals with human
nature and illustrates the evolution of the author’s
thinking through his handwritten notes in the margin.

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