Inkjet print on 285g Hahnemu?hle Fine Art Pearl paper. From an unknown edition. Signed and dated on the reverse (2019). From the 'Wagenfeld Sunsets' series. Published by Griffelkunst-Vereinigung Hamburg e.V..
This inkjet print by Jonathan Monk transforms the iconic Wagenfeld WG 24 table lamp — a masterpiece of Bauhaus design by Wilhelm Wagenfeld and Carl Jakob Jucker — into a meditation on light, nostalgia, and the passage of time. Photographed with its opaline glass dome glowing in warm amber tones against a deep dark background, the lamp's luminous hemisphere evokes a setting sun, drawing an unexpected parallel between industrial design and natural phenomena.
Jonathan Monk (UK, 1969) is a conceptual artist whose work reinterprets and challenges art history with wit and irony. Using diverse media, including photography, sculpture, and performance, he engages in playful dialogues with iconic artists and movements. Monk’s works blur originality and appropriation, inviting viewers to question the boundaries of contemporary art.
Inkjet printAn inkjet printer creates prints by spraying millions of tiny ink droplets onto paper. This type of printing is generally inexpensive because the ink is relatively affordable. Artists can use computers to create digital art, which can then be printed in color using inkjet technology.
Inkjet print on 285g Hahnemu?hle Fine Art Pearl paper. From an unknown edition. Signed and dated on the reverse (2019). From the 'Wagenfeld Sunsets' series. Published by Griffelkunst-Vereinigung Hamburg e.V..
This inkjet print by Jonathan Monk transforms the iconic Wagenfeld WG 24 table lamp — a masterpiece of Bauhaus design by Wilhelm Wagenfeld and Carl Jakob Jucker — into a meditation on light, nostalgia, and the passage of time. Photographed with its opaline glass dome glowing in warm amber tones against a deep dark background, the lamp's luminous hemisphere evokes a setting sun, drawing an unexpected parallel between industrial design and natural phenomena.
Jonathan Monk (UK, 1969) is a conceptual artist whose work reinterprets and challenges art history with wit and irony. Using diverse media, including photography, sculpture, and performance, he engages in playful dialogues with iconic artists and movements. Monk’s works blur originality and appropriation, inviting viewers to question the boundaries of contemporary art.
Is it or is it not or can it or can it not be?
- Jonathan Monk
Jonathan Monk is a British artist living and working in Berlin, Germany. He creates photographs, film, sculpture and installation pieces which are thought to be humorous reinterpretations of works by Sol LeWitt, Ed Ruscha, and John Baldessari to name some. Monk often uses quotations to give new ideas to works viewed as seminal in their time, adding quirkiness to challenge the value of the artwork. Jonathan Monk's upbringing in a working class environment is viewed by some as his source for taking the artistic and adding the mundane in ways that encourage viewers to think differently about specific art pieces than they may have before. Jonathan Monk has works exhibited throughout the world. His Tears, 2005 photograph shows a passport photo with the eyes completely covered by a pair of drop earrings placed to represent tears. His Painting of a photo of a photo of a painting, 2008, has images of a purple vase filled with yellow sunflowers, both in photograph image and then drawn in markers. The greeting “Get Well Soon” is one of three witty, hand-lettered greetings included. These are only two of the pieces which have established Jonathan Monk's reputation as a humorist in the art world.
Appropriation in art involves using pre-existing images or objects with little or no modification. This technique has played a significant role across various art forms, including visual arts, music, performance, and literature. In visual arts, appropriation refers to the practice of adopting, sampling, recycling, or borrowing elements—or even entire forms—of existing visual culture, integrating them into new works to create meaning or critique.