Elaine Sturtevant (American, 1924–2014) was a Conceptual artist, sometimes referred to as the mother of appropriation art. Born in Ohio, the artist was known for most of her life by her last name. After earning a BA in psychology from the University of Iowa, Sturtevant received an MA from the Teachers College of Columbia University, and later studied at the Art Students League.

Beginning in 1965, she began to manually reproduce paintings and objects by other artists. With her replication of some of the most iconic works of the era by Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol, among others, Sturtevant sought to question notions of originality and authorship.

Following negligible critical and commercial success in the 1970s and 1980s, she turned her focus toward the emerging generation of artists, including Robert Gober, Paul McCarthy, and Felix González-Torres, all of whom have since become widely known.

In 2000, Sturtevant began working in video, and evolved a structured exploration of current events through multi-screen works and installations focused on the political implications of cultural images, drawing on stock footage from film, television, and advertising.

In 2010, Sturtevant held an exhibition entitled The Razzle Dazzle of Thinking at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. The artist was awarded The Golden Lion award for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale in 2011. The Moderne Museet in Stockholm and the Kunsthaus in Zurich presented an exhibition of her work between 2012 and 2013. Also in 2013, she was awarded the Kurt Schwitters Prize for Lifetime Achievement by the Sprengel Museum in Germany.

Sturtevant died in Paris at the age of 89.

In 2014, a major show debuted at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, presenting a survey of the artist’s 50-year career.