Notes of Distinction: Jennifer Greenburg
Greenburg’s Revising History series gains notoriety with museum’s acquisition
Thursday Jul 25, 2019
Congratulations to Associate Professor of Photography Jennifer Greenburg. The Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH) now has three pieces from Greenburg’s Revising History series as part of its permanent collection. Two pieces: “Something funny happened in the kitchen, 2010,” and “I was a vendor of drink, not love, 2018” were acquired by the MFAH and another, “It was finally my day! 2015,” was donated by a private collector.
The announcement recently came from jdc Fine Art, who represents Greenburg’s work, and can be found at jdcfineart.com.
Greenburg’s Revising History series began in 2010. Disillusioned by documentary photography, Greenburg inserts herself into vernacular images from mid-century America as a way of undermining the “cultural tropes the original celebrates.”
Greenburg said she intends for the Revising History series “to engage the audience in a conversation about the way we interpret the media, record personal memories, and establish collective history... [this] is a study on photography, the nature of the vernacular image, and its role in creating cultural allegories.”
Jdc Fine Art, the art dealer that secured Greenburg’s work for the museum, said the selections represent “a smartly chosen set of work from the Revising History series with one early work, one later work, and one work that speaks to a repeating theme.”
In addition to the MFAH, Greenburg's work is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson; Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego; and Light Work Syracuse.