Louise Lawler: WHY PICTURES NOW
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Installation view of the exhibition Louise Lawler: WHY PICTURES NOW, April 30 – July 30, 2017, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo by Martin Seck. Digital Image © 2026 The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Louise Lawler has spent her career asking us to look harder—not just at artworks, but at the systems that frame them. WHY PICTURES NOW gathers works that interrogate ownership, visibility, and the subtle hierarchies embedded in exhibition spaces themselves. Presented at The Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition feels both timely and timeless, reminding viewers that images don’t exist in isolation, and that how we see is always shaped by where—and why—we are looking.
Installation view of the exhibition Louise Lawler: WHY PICTURES NOW, April 30 – July 30, 2017, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo by Martin Seck. Digital Image © 2026 The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
