The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Laments: Death came and he looked like...

1987

Jenny Holzer

(American, b.1950)
America
L.E.D. sign, marble
325.1 x 24.1 x 13.3 cm (128 x 9 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.); 45.7 x 61 x 137.2 cm (18 x 24 x 54 in.)
Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller 2019.19
© Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: 229A Contemporary

Did You Know?

The same text is displayed in motion on the LED sign and static on the surface of the sarcophagus.

Description

Jenny Holzer created her Laments series, to which this work belongs, as a response to the HIV / AIDS epidemic. The Laments are based on 13 texts written by Holzer, which she has described as “voices of the dead.” In Laments: Death came and he looked like . . . , Holzer gave form to each text as an engraving carved into the tops of sculptures resembling sarcophagi and as words that flow across LED signs. Together these two representations both memorialize the dead and endow their voices with immediacy.
  • 1987-?
    Collection of the artist
    (Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY)
    2000
    (Christie's, New York, NY, May 17, 2000, no. 192)
    Cheim & Read, New York, NY, sold to Private Collection, Dallas, TX
    ?-2019
    Private Collection, Dallas, TX, consigned to sell, New York, NY
    2019
    Sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2019-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • "New in the Galleries.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 59, no. 5 (September/October 2019): Back cover. Reproduced and Mentioned: Back cover.
    Auping, Michael, ed. Jenny Holzer (Universe Women Artists). New York: Universe, 1992. 40-43, 52, 56, 64, 82, 93, 96, 103-104 and 106.
    Auping, Michael. Jenny Holzer: The Venice Installation. Exh. Cat. Buffalo, NY: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1991.
    Breslin, David, ed. Jenny Holzer. Exh. Cat. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2008.
    Ferguson, Bruce. “Wordsmith: an interview with Jenny Holzer.” Art in America 74, no. 12 (December 1986). 108
    Hughes, Gordon. “Power’s Script: Or, Jenny Holzer’s Art after ‘Art after Philosophy,’” Oxford Art Journal 29, no. 3 (2006). 419-440
    Joselit, David, et al. Jenny Holzer. London: Phaidon, 2003.
    After the Revolution: Women Who Transformed Contemporary Art. Munich, London, and New York: Prestel Verlag, 2007.
    Siegel, Jeanne “Jenny Holzer’s Language Games.” Arts Magazine 60, no. 4 (December 1985). 64-68
    Taylor, Paul. “Jenny Holzer: I wanted to do a portrait of society.” Flash Art International 151 (March/April 1990). 116-119
    Waldman, Diane, ed. Jenny Holzer. Exh. Cat. Guggenheim Museum Publications: New York, 1989. 92-97
    Holzer, Jenny. Jenny Holzer: Laments. Exh. Cat. New York: Dia Art Foundation, 1989.
    Liebert, Emily and Fellah, Nadiah. “Acquisitions 2019: Contemporary Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 60, no. 2 (March/April 2020): 18-19. Reproduced: P. 19; Mentioned: P. 18.
  • Jenny Holzer: Laments 1988-1989. Dia Chelsea, New York (March 2, 1989-February 18, 1990)
  • {{cite web|title=Laments: Death came and he looked like...|url=false|author=Jenny Holzer|year=1987|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2019.19