"Sturtevant: Double Trouble"

When this Ohio native began to copy the work of her Pop Art betters and claim it as her own, she was dismissed as an eccentric at best, a crackpot at worst. But Sturtevant (1924–2014)—whose first name was Elaine, but who went by her last name only—was simply carrying the logic of both the readymade and Pop Art to its radical conclusion, answering in the affirmative the following question: If the entire buffet of low-cultural signs and products was available for artistic consumption, why not artworks as well? In the bargain she anticipated 1980s appropriation tactics. Although she didn't necessarily cast her approach as feminist, she eventually became embraced as one, with her work seen as a critique of the male-dominated, market-oriented art world. This retrospective covers her 50-year career and its remarkable journey from margin to center.