Jeff Wall. Works & Collected Writings

Michael Newman, Jeff Wall

Jeff Wall's large-scale Cibachrome transparencies mounted on light boxes have exerted a profound influence over little short of the past three decades. His work also spans a time in which the way in which the relationship between art and history has been conceived has undergone a profound change. He is one of the last artists to work out his moves on the basis of a linear view of history and then to have to rethink the relationship of his work with art history in a world in which such a view of history was no longer tenable. His compositions in both color and black and white maintain a constant dialogue with nineteenth century genre painting and truly make him, in Charles Baudelaire s expression, a painter of modern life.