Sherrie Levine, L’Absinthe, 1995

Narrator: In L’Absinthe, Levine presents the 1876 Edgar Degas painting of the same name in twelve black-and-white photographs. In the image, a woman gazes out over her absinthe, a highly addictive alcoholic drink popular in the late nineteenth century. By eliminating color, Levine heightens the focus on the alienated woman at the center of the image. The repetition of the image undermines any sense of uniqueness we might find in her emotional state—perhaps what we see on her face is simply the look of the modern condition. By repeating the images, Levine reinterprets them.