Untitled (Worth Every Penny)

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Untitled (Worth Every Penny) is a photographic silkscreen print on vinyl by the American concept artist Barbara Kruger . The work measures 463 cm × 280.6 cm and dates from 1987. It fits into Barbara Kruger's typical series of text-image collages. In terms of color, the artist is limited to black, white and red. The work of art is currently owned by the Rubell Family Collection / Contemporary Arts Foundation in Miami .

Image description

The work is composed of three formally concise picture elements that are typical of Barbara Kruger: the picture, the text and the signal color red. The central motif of Barbara Kruger's Untitled (Worth Every Penny) is the black and white portrait of a monkey's head . Based on the physiognomy , it can be identified as belonging to the rhesus monkey species . Barbara Kruger uses the enlarged section of a photograph for her work, which is limited to the face of the animal. This is so enlarged that the focus is on the defining facial features, such as eyes, nostrils and mouth, and the viewer cannot grasp the three-dimensionality of the entire head.

The monkey's eyes are dark, with large pupils, and almond-shaped. The animal has opened it wide and looks out of the picture at the viewer. His mouth is also wide open. Small wrinkles form over the nostrils, the skin pulls over the gums and the jaw protrudes. The lower and upper rows of teeth are visible, with the four incisors particularly eye-catching due to their position in the center of the picture and their white color in contrast to the black oral cavity. The opened mouth takes up a good two thirds of the entire picture surface in height and width and dominates the representation. Barbara Kruger has placed in the middle of the Monkey throat, on the tongue, the words "Worth every penny" ( English : "Every cents worth") placed. The lettering is arranged in a red square so that each word is on its own line. As in all of her text-image collages, the artist uses the sans serif Futura Bold Italic as typography . The color of the lettering is white.

Due to the processing of the photograph by the artist, the image appears overexposed and contains strong black and white contrasts. The skin and fur of the monkey as well as its teeth appear almost white and show hardly any shading. This work by Kruger is held together by a frame that is kept in the same shade of red as the underlying slogan.

background

Barbara Kruger uses a photograph of a rhesus monkey for Untitled (Worth Every Penny) . While the artist was still working with her own photographs at the beginning of her artistic career, Barbara Kruger soon began to use images that were increasingly popular in the mass media. For Untitled (Worth Every Penny) she uses a photograph that has already appeared in the press.

Rhesus monkeys were the most popular species of monkey for animal experiments until the 1980s, when more and more animal welfare organizations, such as PETA , began to campaign for their rescue . In the 50s and 60s, the animals were sent into space , where they sometimes died in agony. At the beginning of the 1980s, the rhesus monkeys came again increasingly into the press and stayed there until the beginning of the 1990s. Barbara Kruger's work Untitled (Worth Every Penny) was created during this period . The focus of the media was on the so-called Silver Spring Monkeys , a group of seventeen macaques , which are the most famous laboratory animals in history. Experiments were carried out on the animals that led to considerable controversy and made PETA known to a wider audience.

Image interpretation

The picture allows for several possible interpretations. On the one hand, it embodies a clear relationship to the media, advertising and consumer world. Artistic strategies are adapted and point to this reference. In addition to the size of the work of art, which is comparable to advertising posters, Barbara Kruger’s handling of signal colors, the use of a font that is often used in the advertising industry , but above all its formal language, the interplay of image and text, create a clear correspondence with advertising and Media society. She is primarily interested in the psychological structures of a society for which the material has assumed a predominant position. Like the Greek philosopher Epicurus , she proclaims the orientation towards a way out of consumerism.

Consequently, the work can be understood as critical of consumption . In this context, the imitation of, or orientation to, images and clichéd lifestyles that are disseminated in the mass media are also criticized. The motif of the mouth, in this case modified into an open mouth, is a frequently recurring image in Kruger.

If the viewer is confronted with a text-image collage that is typical for advertising, he or she expects quickly comprehensible statements at first glance, familiar and usually “expected advertising messages” that make the relation to the image clear. While Barbara Kruger, as she herself says, wants to avoid a high level of difficulty in the visual presentation, she works with intelligent and witty relationships between image and text.

If the viewer sees the photograph of the monkey and the well-known phrase “Worth every penny”, questions arise that make him pause and think. Who or what is worth every penny? What does the monkey mean in this context? Is it a product or an aid? Although the visual presentation is strongly reminiscent of advertising, a product is no longer advertised here; especially if you know the background of the image material used. The focus is now on an abstract idea, which is used here to represent a deceptive promise. In contrast to advertising, the slogan now has a clearly negative connotation, as it is linked to this violent image.

In addition to the criticism of the consumer craze, in the context of which the monkey embodies the mere aping and blind consequences of advertising, the screaming, suffering animal is also in the foreground. Be it a silent scream as a symbol, a call to attention to the terrible conditions of the laboratory animals or a real, painful scream from the tortured animal, in whose mouth the statement is written, which turns into a question, namely whether this agony is really worth every penny .

Kruger also orientates himself on Guy Debord here . He was an author, artist and radical critic of capitalism and, as early as 1967, addressed the wrong orientation of society towards omnipresent consumption. “Desire exists where pleasure is absent” - a void is to be saturated through consumption. This emptiness, lack of irritation and frustration always creates a desire for something new, for better goods. To satisfy this need, limits are crossed or things are done that are questionable as to whether they are worth every penny. Here the statement is made that it is worth every penny, but at the same time the question arises as to whether this promise is really true or whether it will not be immediately canceled by the monkey's pained cry.

The “totality” and glorification of the goods, the transgressions of consumerism and the supremacy of advertising in society are criticized here. Barbara Kruger sees through and unveils the behavior of a materialistic society which all too often gives in to the misleading temptations - the "monkey business" (English for "lazy magic") - of the media and advertising and thus gives her work the task of a critical intervener.

Provenance

The painting was in the possession of the New York City- based Mary Boone Gallery . On November 9, 2005, the work was auctioned in New York City as part of a post-war and contemporary art auction organized by Christie's auction house. After the estimated value was awarded at $ 50,000 to $ 70,000, the highest bid reached $ 90,000.

Exhibitions

Untitled (Worth Every Penny) was first presented to the public at the Whitney Biennial Exhibition: Contemporary American Art from April to July 1987. This annual series of exhibitions is initiated by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. From March to May 1988 this work was on view in New Zealand during the exhibition The Temporary / Contemporary at the National Art Gallery. From December 4, 2006 to May 31, 2007, Untitled (Worth Every Penny) was shown on the occasion of the exhibition Red Eye: Los Angeles Artists from the Rubell Family Collection . The show was hosted by the Rubell Family Collection / Contemporary Arts Foundation in Miami, Florida. In this context, the oeuvre created between 1986 and 2006 by 36 artists living or working in Los Angeles was presented. As part of the exhibition Beg, Borrow and Steal , Untitled (Worth Every Penny) was shown again from December 2, 2009 to August 27, 2010 at the Rubell Family Collection / Contemporary Arts Foundation. This is a traveling exhibition with 260 works by 74 artists. It can currently be viewed at the Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Springs, California from February 2 to June 2, 2013.

literature

  • Shelagh Alexander: Subject and Subject Matter. London Regional Art Gallery, London 1985, ISBN 0-920872-54-9 .
  • Deborah Blum: Monkey Wars. Oxford University Press, New York 1994, ISBN 0-19-509412-3 .
  • Holliday T. Day: Power. Its Myths and Mores in American Art 1961-1991. Indiana University Press, Indianapolis 1991, ISBN 0-8109-1219-8 .
  • Rosalyn Deutsche, Ann Goldstein, Barbara Kruger: Barbara Kruger. MIT Press, Los Angeles 1999, ISBN 0-914357-70-0 .
  • Nancy Dwyer: In Other Words. Ed. Cantz, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-89322-159-X .
  • Veit Görner, Frank-Thorsten Moll, Hilke Wagner: Barbara Kruger. Desire Exists Where Pleasure is Absent. Kerber, Bielefeld 2006, ISBN 0-8109-1219-8 .
  • Andy Grundberg: Crisis of the Real. Writings on Photography 1974-1989. Aperture, New York 1990, ISBN 0-89381-401-6 .
  • Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Suzanne Landau: Jenny Holzer. Barbara Kruger. The Israel Museum Jerusalem, Jerusalem 1986, ISBN 0-914357-70-0 .
  • Barbara Kruger: Money Talks. Skarstedt Fine Art, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-9709090-4-6 .
  • Kate Linker: Love for sale. The Words and Pictures of Barbara Kruger. Abrams, New York 1990, ISBN 0-8109-1219-8 .
  • Craig McDaniel, Jean Robertson: Themes of Contemporary Art. Visual Art after 1980. Oxford University Press, New York 2010, ISBN 0-19-536757-X .
  • Craig Owens: Beyond Recognition. Representation, Power and Culture. University of California Press, Berkeley 1992, ISBN 0-520-07739-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Silver Spring Monkeys: The Case That Launched PETA . Website of the PETA organization. Retrieved March 15, 2013.
  2. ^ Veit Görner, Hilke Wagner, Frank-Thorsten Moll: Desire Exists Where Pleasure Is Absent , p. 15.
  3. ^ Veit Görner, Hilke Wagner, Frank-Thorsten Moll: Desire Exists Where Pleasure Is Absent , p. 8.
  4. ^ Veit Görner, Hilke Wagner, Frank-Thorsten Moll: Desire Exists Where Pleasure Is Absent , p. 13.
  5. ^ Veit Görner, Hilke Wagner, Frank-Thorsten Moll: Desire Exists Where Pleasure Is Absent , p. 16.
  6. ^ Veit Görner, Hilke Wagner, Frank-Thorsten Moll: Desire Exists Where Pleasure Is Absent , p. 8.
  7. ↑ Sale Information Lot 454 . Christie's auction house website. Retrieved March 15, 2013.