Cultural Capital, 2025, custom wooden tables, archival binders, letters
Cultural Capital is conceptual artwork comprised of two binders on pedestals: one binder contains 100 fictional letters of recommendation for a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship written by ChatGPT between 1925-2025; and the other contains 100 letters of rejection for the same Fellowship for each of those years. Each letter of recommendation was written in the appropriated voice and style of living and deceased historic and contemporary critics, curators, historians, and art-world influencers in support of Leah Modigliani’s work (my work). Exceeding the time frame of my own life, the letters are written by such luminaries as Walter Benjamin, Linda Nochlin, Lucy Lippard, Griselda Pollock, Rosalind Krauss, Jeff Wall, and many others. Each letter reflects what ChatGPT determines the particular interests of each author are in the context of the social mores of their lifetime. The letters are strangely similar, as they effusively describe Modigliani’s artistic innovation and success through the Western English “jargon of authenticity” (Adorno) that has built and supported the discourse of global contemporary art over a century, including the prejudices and assumptions about greatness embedded therein. The work also functions as AI-generated portrait of Modigliani since the recommenders put into the prompt were chosen as allies in ideas and ethics valued by the artist. While cheeky, this work nonetheless speaks seriously about how patterns of recognition move along well-worn paths that are likely to become even more entrenched through the use of AI for writing.
Letters of recommendation written by: Emma Goldman, Clive Bell, Emily Carr, Gertrude Stein, Florine Stettheimer, Andre Breton, Sigmund Freud, Virginia Woolf, Hilma af Klint, Paraskeva Ckark, Herbert Read, Ben Shahn, Walter Benjamin, Elizabeth Olds, Woody Guthrie, Elsa Schiaparelli, Siegfried Kracauer, Lee Krasner, Gertrude Abercrombie, Dorothea Lange, Dorothy Miller, Kay Sage, Edith Halpert, Louise Nevelson, Meyer Schapiro, Louise Bourgeois, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Lorraine Hansberry, Maya Deren, Marshall McLuhan, Robert Rauschenberg, Marcel Duchamp, Simone de Beauvoir, Elizabeth Catlett, Lee Bontecou, Audre Lorde, Shirley Chisholm, George Steiner, Lee Lozano, Joyce Weiland, Joan Didion, Arthur Danto, Lucy Lippard, Ingrid Baxter, Robert Smithson, Sophie Calle, Ed Ruscha, Mel Bochner, Linda Nochlin, Susan Hiller, Marcia Tucker, Laura Mulvey, Hans Haacke, Craig Owens, Susan Sontag, Carol Duncan, Andy Grundberg, Mary Kelly, Charlotte Townsend-Gault, Donald Kuspit, bell hooks, TJ Clark, Guerilla Girls, Deborah Harry, Silvia Federici, Judith Butler, Elaine Sturtevant, Jeff Wall, Martha Rosler, Anne Hamilton, Miwon Kwon, Dave Hickey, Coco Fusco, Stan Douglas, Andrea Fraser, Julian Stallabrass, Rosalind Krauss, Amelia Jones, Sarah Lucas, Rachel Whiteread, Nancy Fraser, Griselda Pollock, Maurizio Cattelan, Rebecca Solnit, Mona Hatoum, Jenny Holzer, Dana Claxton, Rebecca Schneider, Hito Steyerl, Yael Bartana, Julian Rosefeldt, Tacita Dean, Rodney Graham, Eyal Weizman, Jerry Saltz, Barbara Kruger, Diana Taylor, Roee Rosen, Walid Raad, Timnit Gebru.
Rejection letters written by Henry Allen Moe, Gordon N. Ray, John Conarroe, Edward Hirsch.
Letters of recommendation written by: Emma Goldman, Clive Bell, Emily Carr, Gertrude Stein, Florine Stettheimer, Andre Breton, Sigmund Freud, Virginia Woolf, Hilma af Klint, Paraskeva Ckark, Herbert Read, Ben Shahn, Walter Benjamin, Elizabeth Olds, Woody Guthrie, Elsa Schiaparelli, Siegfried Kracauer, Lee Krasner, Gertrude Abercrombie, Dorothea Lange, Dorothy Miller, Kay Sage, Edith Halpert, Louise Nevelson, Meyer Schapiro, Louise Bourgeois, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Lorraine Hansberry, Maya Deren, Marshall McLuhan, Robert Rauschenberg, Marcel Duchamp, Simone de Beauvoir, Elizabeth Catlett, Lee Bontecou, Audre Lorde, Shirley Chisholm, George Steiner, Lee Lozano, Joyce Weiland, Joan Didion, Arthur Danto, Lucy Lippard, Ingrid Baxter, Robert Smithson, Sophie Calle, Ed Ruscha, Mel Bochner, Linda Nochlin, Susan Hiller, Marcia Tucker, Laura Mulvey, Hans Haacke, Craig Owens, Susan Sontag, Carol Duncan, Andy Grundberg, Mary Kelly, Charlotte Townsend-Gault, Donald Kuspit, bell hooks, TJ Clark, Guerilla Girls, Deborah Harry, Silvia Federici, Judith Butler, Elaine Sturtevant, Jeff Wall, Martha Rosler, Anne Hamilton, Miwon Kwon, Dave Hickey, Coco Fusco, Stan Douglas, Andrea Fraser, Julian Stallabrass, Rosalind Krauss, Amelia Jones, Sarah Lucas, Rachel Whiteread, Nancy Fraser, Griselda Pollock, Maurizio Cattelan, Rebecca Solnit, Mona Hatoum, Jenny Holzer, Dana Claxton, Rebecca Schneider, Hito Steyerl, Yael Bartana, Julian Rosefeldt, Tacita Dean, Rodney Graham, Eyal Weizman, Jerry Saltz, Barbara Kruger, Diana Taylor, Roee Rosen, Walid Raad, Timnit Gebru.
Rejection letters written by Henry Allen Moe, Gordon N. Ray, John Conarroe, Edward Hirsch.
Example of letter written by Emma Goldman in 1925.
