As Time Goes By

Lawrence Weiner

1993

A work by Lawrence Weiner that uses screenprinting with pencil and invisible ink to present two yellow-framed panels whose ghostly, penciled phrases—“AS TIME GOES BY” and its Dutch equivalent—ask you to consider language as a fading, physical object.

At first it reads like a bright, graphic poster—rows of red-and-blue Xs border the sheet and bold yellow rectangles organize the center—but inside those frames the words appear as scratched, gray pencil shadows and barely legible impressions, like an afterimage of language.

Rooted in conceptual art, this piece extends Weiner’s practice of making words into material forms by using print techniques and erasure to stage visibility, translation, and the passage of time.

Palette

Art Terms

Conceptual art Print Screenprint Pencil Contemporary art Typography

Exhibitions

Committed to Print

1988

Drawing Now: 1955–1975

1976

New Art for the New Year

1977

America Worked: The 1950s Photographs of Dan Weiner

1989