Barbara KRUGER — the artist who questions your mind
Disclaimer: The information provided in this episode comes from multiple sources and are not my scientific studies or discoveries. Bear with me as I am editing all the texts and crediting the authors. Thank you!
Welcome to HerArt podcast, a project for art lovers, especially art created by women. I am so excited to start this new season! I got 12 amazing stories about various female artists, from all over the world. For season two I will do my best to introduce you to not only the ultimate OGs of the art world but encourage you to meet new amazing and talented Moldovan artists. My internship with National Arts Museum continues, so, don’t forget we are meeting twice a month for our Wknd Study Group program. And I have so many giveaways and surprises for this season, so you better follow HerArt on Facebook and Instagram.
In our first episode, we will talk about Barbara KRUGER the artist aware of the fact that human beings have a short attention span. This is the main reason she chooses brief yet forceful words to express her views on issues of social relevance. My name is Nata Andreev and I am going to tell you seven curious facts that you didn’t know about the feminist artist frustrated by the rampant materialism and consumerism in modern American society and strives to critically analyze prevailing social, cultural and political norms through her works. It will be amazing if you could join me for the eight Wknd Study Group session this Sunday, December 27th. We will discuss the art of the Islamic world in the medieval period.
Curious Fact #1
Kruger grew up middle class in Newark, New Jersey. Her father was a chemical technician while her mother worked as a legal secretary. She was an only child and had a typical childhood. Her first job was as a page designer at Mademoiselle. She turned out to be a master at using type seductively to frame and foreground the image and lure the reader to the text. She described her early magazine graphic design work as a big influence on her art.
Curious Fact #2
Kruger’s earliest artworks date to 1969. Large woven wall hangings of yarn, beads, sequins, feathers, and ribbons, they exemplify the feminist recuperation of craft during this period. Despite her inclusion in the Whitney Biennial in 1973 and solo exhibitions in 1974 and 1975 at Artists Space and Fischbach Gallery, both in New York, she was dissatisfied with her output and its detachment from her growing social and political concerns. In the fall of 1976, Kruger abandoned art-making and moved to Berkeley, California, where she taught at the University of California for four years.
Curious Fact #3
What’s the best way to describe Barbara’s work? You know abstract expressionism, right? Well, think of Kruger’s art as “extract expressionism.” She takes images from the mass media and pastes words over them, big, bold extracts of text — aphorisms, questions, slogans. Short machine-gun bursts of words that when isolated, and framed by Kruger’s gaze, linger in your mind, forcing you to think twice, thrice about clichés and catchphrases, introducing ironies into cultural idioms and the conventional wisdom they embed in our brains.
Curious Fact #4
What are the common phrases used in her works? You can find several pronouns used in her works such as they, we, I or even you. The pronoun has deep meaning for it can reflect the sexuality, identity, and power.
Curious Fact #5
Her poster ‘Untitled (Your Body Is a Battleground)’ is considered one of her iconic works. Portraying a woman’s face bisected into positive and negative photographic reproductions overlaid with the text “Your Body Is a Battleground”, it was used during the 1989 Women’s March on Washington in support of legal abortion.
Curious Fact #6
Barbara Kruger’s work has been displayed around the world, from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, from Ottawa to Sydney. Among her awards are the 2001 Distinguished Women in the Arts by MOCA and the 2005 Leone d’Oro for lifetime achievement. In 2005 Kruger was honored at the 51st Venice Biennale with the “Golden Lion” for Lifetime Achievement. Kruger is currently a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Curious Fact #7
In recent years, Kruger has extended her aesthetic project, creating public installations of her work in galleries, museums, municipal buildings, train stations, and parks, as well as on buses and billboards around the world. Walls, floors, and ceilings are covered with images and texts, which engulf and even assault the viewer.
Thank you so much for listening to the first episode of season two, of HerArt podcast — a project for art lovers, especially art created by women. If you want to follow more of what we do, find us on Facebook and Instagram. And don’t forget to tune in next month, when I am going to tell you about Nalini MALANI — an Indian pioneer of video and performance art. It will be amazing if you could join me for the eight-session of my project with the National Art Museum, this Sunday, January 27th. We will discuss the art of the Islamic world in the medieval period.
