RESPINI, EVA
Ever since her student efforts in the 1970s, she has been exploring the complex territory of constructing a self for the camera - a focus that placed her squarely at the forefront of postmodern theory. Nevertheless, it is still surprising to see the great variety of work she has produced from this single-minded inquiry. Her landmark achievement, "Untitled Film Stills," created between 1977 and 1980, surveys the history of women in cinema, using little more than makeup and wigs. (Barbara Pollack ARTnews 20120223)
At many points throughout this dense, often exciting show . we are confronted by an artist with an urgent, singularly personal vision, who for the past 35 years has consistently and provocatively turned photography against itself. She comes across here as an increasingly vehement avenging angel waging a kind of war with the camera, using it to expose what might be called both the tyranny and the inner lives of images, especially the images of women that bombard and shape all of us at every turn.
Although not one of her images qualifies, exactly, as a self-portrait, the Modern's show is above all an inspiring portrait of the artist ceaselessly at work, striving never to repeat herself, always trying to go deeper and further in one direction or another. Her self - remorseless, generous, imaginative and shrewd - is everywhere. (Roberta Smith New York Times 20120212)
