Barbara Kruger

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Barbara Kruger, ACCA, Melbourne (2006)

Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945 in Newark , New Jersey ) is an American concept artist who is known for her large-format posters and installations. In her works she addresses political and social issues from a feminist and consumer-critical point of view and belongs to “the first generation of feminist artists [...] who received worldwide attention”. The effect of her posters, and later of her wall-to-wall installations, fell in a time that “was shaped by the political awakening as well as the emerging conceptual art.” Today the artist lives and works in New York and Los Angeles .

Life

Barbara Kruger attended from 1964 the University of Syracuse and from 1966 the Parsons School of Design in New York, where she studied with Diane Arbus and Marvin Israel , where she was particularly influenced by Israel. He had been the art director of Harper's Bazaar , introducing Kruger to photographers and the fashion and magazine subculture.

She joined Condé Nast Verlag in 1966 and soon began working as a picture editor for Mademoiselle magazine . After a year she went from being a beginner to being the head of the picture editing department. Kruger then worked for House and Garden , Aperture and other publications. She also worked as a freelance picture editor. Her first works of art date from 1969. In the 1970s she became known for “capitalized, concise formulations”. She took part in the Whiney Biennale in 1973 and had solo exhibitions in the Artists Space and the Fischbach Gallery (both in New York). After a period as a lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley and the publication of her artist book Picture / Readings (1978), she had a solo exhibition in 1979 in New York at PS1 , Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, Queens , New York City and received 1980 a scholarship from P, p. 1 .

In 1982 the first major international exhibitions followed, such as the first participation in the Venice Biennale and Documenta 7 in Kassel. In the 1980s she established herself with political and socially critical work, in which she worked with the means of the mass media and advertising . She is considered a pioneer of conceptual art. She not only exhibits in galleries, but also works in public spaces , e.g. B. in local transport and at department stores. She also has her works printed on consumer goods such as T-shirts, mugs and shopping bags.

In 1991 Kruger exhibited her first installation.

Kruger was a lecturer at various US colleges and universities, including the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, the school of the Art Institute of Chicago , and at the University of California, Berkeley . She currently teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles .

Since the election of Donald Trump as American President , the artist has been increasingly concerned with US politics .

plant

The effect of the posters, and later of the wall-high installations by Barbara Kruger, fell at a time "which was shaped by both the political awakening and the emerging conceptual art."

Graphic work

Her graphic work mostly consists of black and white photographs with slogans mostly in white Futura font on a red background. Often the slogan and motif coincide. Pointed formulations by Barbara Kruger developed into contemporary proverbs ("I shop therefore I am" - "I buy, therefore I am."). In her works, Kruger uses resources from the 1940s and 1950s and "re-photographs" them. The use and alienation of existing image sources is called Appropriation Art . Appropriation Art originated in New York in the late 1970s .

Dada art and DIY punk zins are highlighted as models for the use of text in Kruger's works. In the slogans above, she often uses direct forms of address such as “you”, “I”, “we” and “they.” “When using the personal pronouns 'I', 'me', 'we' and 'you', die are known as 'shifter' in linguistics, instead of decorating them with powerful authors of advertising, then these gradually reveal that the viewer's place in language is infinite and thus deny gender alignment. More like a male or female position, there is an interplay of active and passive relationships. "

A recurring motif in Kruger is the juxtaposition of images with texts that criticize sexism and misogyny , as well as the distribution of power in society.

Well-known graphic works

  • "Untitled (I shop therefore I am)" The rectangle, which is held by the accessing hand and bears the slogan "I shop therefore I am ", symbolizes a credit card. - consumer criticism
  • "Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground)" In 1989, she placed the slogan "Your body is a battle ground" on a black and white portrait of a woman (Fig.7) . Using this feminist statement, she called for a demonstration for the right to abortion in the same year
  • "Untitled (We don't need another hero)"

Installations

Kruger worked with video , film , audio and projections from an early age . By engaging the viewer with direct address, her work, as Kruger himself puts it, deals "with the friendliness and at the same time with the brutality of social life, how we humans treat one another". Examples of this are the installation on the facade of the Kaufhof at the Hauptwache in Frankfurt am Main in 2002 You want it. You buy it. You forget and Circus in the Frankfurt Schirn Kunsthalle in 2010.

meaning

Kruger is one of the most important contemporary artists in the USA. She belongs “to the first generation of feminist artists [...] who received worldwide attention”. Her works can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

Awards

Solo exhibitions (selection)

Books

  • Barbara Kruger: 7 January to 28 January 1989 , Mary Boone Gallery, 1989
  • Barbara Kruger: 5 January to 26 January 1991 , 1991
  • Remote Control: Power, Cultures , and the World of Appearances, 1994
  • Remaking History (Discussions in Contemporary Culture, No 4) 1998
  • Money Talks (with Lisa Phillips), 2005

About Barbara Kruger

  • Bang Larsen, Lars: Barbara Kruger. (Interview). In: Dorothea Apovnik (Ed.): Twenty years of Schirn. Frankfurt 2006, pp. 31-36.
  • Barbara Kruger. Exhibition catalog Siena 2002, ed. by Angela Vettese / Paolo Fabbri / Marco Pierini. Siena et al. 2002.
  • Barbara Kruger. Desire exists where pleasure is absent. Exhibition catalog Hannover 2006, ed. by Veit Görner . Bielefeld 2006.
  • Ann Goldstein, Rosalyn Deutsche (Ed.): Barbara Kruger. Thinking of you. Exhibition catalog Los Angeles 1999–2000. Los Angeles 1999.
  • Walther König : Circus. Cologne 2010.
  • Kate Linker, Barbara Kruger (Ill.): Love for sale. The words and pictures of Barbara Kruger. New York 1990.
  • WYD Mitchell: An Interview with Barbara Kruger. In: Critical Inquiry. 17/2, 1991, pp. 434-448.
  • Weena Perry: Art as brand. In: Afterimage. 28/2, 2000, p. 16.

Film and video

  • "Pleasure, Pain, Desire, Disgust". 1997
  • "Twelve". 2004

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbara Kruger. on: britannica.com
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Catrin Lorch: Land of Insecurity. In: sueddeutsche.de . October 13, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Kate Linker, Barbara Kruger (Ill.): Love for sale. The words and pictures of Barbara Kruger. New York 1990, pp. 13f.
  4. ↑ Ann Goldstein, Rosalyn Deutsche (Ed.): Barbara Kruger Thinking of You. Exhibition catalog Los Angeles 1999–2000. Los Angeles 1999, pp. 30f.
  5. ↑ Ann Goldstein, Rosalyn Deutsche (Ed.): Barbara Kruger Thinking of You. Exhibition catalog Los Angeles 1999–2000. Los Angeles 1999, p. 32.
  6. ↑ Weena Perry: Art as brand. In: Afterimage. 28/2, 2000, p. 16.
  7. ↑ Kate Linker, Barbara Kruger (Ill.): Love for sale. The words and pictures of Barbara Kruger. New York 1990, p. 12.
  8. ↑ Ann Goldstein, Rosalyn Deutsche (Ed.): Barbara Kruger. Thinking of you. Exhibition catalog Los Angeles 1999–2000. Los Angeles 1999, p. 31.
  9. ^ Goldstein, Ann., Deutsche, Rosalyn., Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.): Barbara Kruger . MIT Press, 1999, ISBN 0-914357-70-0 .
  10. ^ Evans, David, 1949-: Appropriation . Whitechapel, 2009, ISBN 978-0-262-55070-3 .
  11. ^ Moloney, Ciara .: Barbara Kruger . Modern Art Oxford, 2014, ISBN 978-1-901352-62-7 .
  12. ↑ Reckitt, Helena., Phelan, Peggy .: Art and Feminism . Phaidon-Verl, 2005, ISBN 0-7148-9425-7 .
  13. ^ Veit Görner (ed.): Barbara Kruger. Desire exists where pleasure is absent. Exhibition catalog Hannover 2006. Bielefeld 2006, p. 8.
  14. ↑ Dwyer, Nancy, Meseure, Sonja Anna, Museum am Ostwall (Dortmund) .: In other words: spoken and written in images; September 10 - October 15, 1989, Museum am Ostwall Dortmund; Nancy Dwyer ... Museum am Ostwall, 1989, ISBN 3-89322-159-X .
  15. ^ Finger, Brad., Weidemann, Christiane .: 50 contemporary artists you should know . Prestel, 2011, ISBN 978-3-7913-4529-1 .
  16. ^ Sentences: Barbara Kruger's word pictures in the Schirn rotunda. In: FAZ . December 15, 2010, p. 43.
  17. ↑ How people treat each other. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung . December 19, 2010, p. R3.
  18. ↑ Barbara Kruger receives the Kaiserrring of the city of Goslar in 2019. www.kunstforum.de, January 7, 2019, accessed on January 11, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Sprüth Magers message about the exhibition  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 10, 2017.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.spruethmagers.com  
  20. ↑ Wexner Center for the Arts  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 10, 2017.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / wexarts.org  
personal data
SURNAME Kruger, Barbara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American artist
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Newark , New Jersey