BARBARA KRUGER

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BARBARA KRUGER

• Kruger focuses her attention on social issues
  which expose myths that surround capitalism,
  consumerism, the power of the media and sex
  stereotyping.
• Krugers messages are succinct, pungent,
  confrontational and aimed at hitting quickly with
  extreme force- just like advertising.

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We dont need another heroBarbara Kruger, 1986

• Iconography what does a clenched fist and
  displayed bicep represent?
• How does this work address gender stereotypes?

Compare to Norman Rockwell The Muscleman 1941
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Barbara Kruger

• Born in New Jersey in 1945.
• Often described as a 'social commentator and a
  political agitator'
• Worked early in career as a graphic designer, art
  director and picture editor.
• Krugers artworks appear in museums and galleries
  on billboards, bus cards, posters, parks, signs,
  train platforms and various other public places
  making her work highly accessible to all (not
  just us art folk).

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Barbara Kruger

• Trademark black letters lay against a slash of
  red background.
• Instantly recognisable slogans which challenge
  and test her viewers.
• Easy to identify with- using relevant issues of
  contemporary society throughout her works.
• Hard not to provoke personal and real
  discussions with its audience.
• Comment on the womans role in this work who has
  been put in place by another

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Barbara Kruger

• Confronting, demanding and persuasive text.
• Gives viewers a sense of promise and/or hope, yet
  we are not actually told what we are purchasing.
• Relaying that consumerism and has the power to
  simply change the world
• Kruger installs instant hope within ourselves-
  till we soon realise that we have just been
  tricked by a master of her craft.

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• Comment on how Kruger has used recognisable
  slogans from our society to provoke both interest
  and outrage from her audience about gender roles
  and equality

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Binary oppositions
MAN WOMAN
SELF OTHER
CULTURE NATURE
ACTIVE PASSIVE
SUBJECT OBJECT
SURVEYER SURVEYED
DOMINANT SUBMISSIVE
REASON EMOTION
PUBLIC PRIVATE
Kruger is interested in DISRUPTING these binary
oppositions that form the basis of many of our
gender stereotypes
Untitled (We wont play nature to your culture)
1983
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Context from 1970s to 1980s Feminism

• Backlash against Feminism from the Right
• 1980s Gender studies in US universities but
  gender bias in galleries is actually worse than
  in 1970s
• Rise of Postmodernism ? pluralism, deconstruction
  , identity politics the idea that being a woman
  is socially constructed
• In art ? appropriation of images, increased use
  of language

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• Your gaze hits the side of my face
• Iconography comment on Krugers choice of image
• Composition why is the text laid out like this?
• What feminist concerns come through?

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• You invest in the Divinity of the Masterpiece
• What image has Kruger appropriated?
• What is the feminist message of this work?
• Comment on the composition

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What big muscles you have!, 1986 152,5 x 208 cm,
Centre Pompidou, Paris.
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cogito ergo sum
Rene Descartes
Consumerism Capitalism

• How does Kruger manage to blur the boundaries
  between high and low art here?
• - In what ways can this work be seen to offer a
  critique of consumerism and sexism?

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TEXT

• Kruger layers famous photographs which her
  audience are often familiar with, with cutting,
  biting and aggressive text that involves the
  viewer in the struggle for power and control that
  her captions speak to.
• Kruger wishes to change the way society looks at
  and reads images which are presented to them,
  Kruger wants us not to take her work just on face
  value.
• Do actions speak louder than words???

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SLOGANS

• Kruger includes well known slogans to draw in her
  viewers.
• Consumerism is present in Krugers work as she
  explores themes of greed, self-indulgence and
  manipulation.
• Kruger chooses to use only bw in the background
  as she wishes for her text to be seen first--
  from this we gain an impression which is then,
  often changed by the image that follows.

  What does this artwork say about consumerism
defining ones self??
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Political Controversy

• Krugers work is often politically based and
  highly controversial at the time of print.
• Comment on the use of American President George
  Bush in this work.
• What do you think the words Kruger has
  included into the image are implying??
• What is the reference to war??

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Feminism

• Kruger was highly influenced by the feminist
  movement in America.
• Kruger was regularly fighting for equal rights
  and opportunities in her confronting
  compositions.
• Kruger allowed this image to be displayed on
  postcards and flags with the added text "Support
  Abortion, Birth Control, and Women's Rights
  during a pro-choice rally in Washington D.C
  during election month.
• Kruger wanted to make a political statement about
  abortion is this work, explain how she has
  achieved this??
• What do you think the word battleground implies
  in this context??

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Krugers aims and concerns
Krugers art work in the public sphere What is
the effect of the juxtaposition of these
images? In what way can using a public media
site (billboard) be seen as a post-modernist
and/or feminist strategy?
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Gender Roles

• Marilyn Monroe- the most beautiful woman of all
  time, thought to be the perfect, ideal woman.
• Women wanted to be her, men wanted to be with
  her.
• Actress- linked to famous men including JFK.
• Coined the term Blonde Bombshell
• What do you think the text is trying to say in
  this artwork about women and their role in
  society?

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ART

• Recontextualisation of infamous artwork by
  Michelangelo.
• Focusing attention on moment of creation- the
  touch.
• Text is placed over the quoted masterpiece, thus
  obscuring it and dominating it. Kruger parodies
  the work of Michelangelo by imitating it in a
  fashion that ridicules its authority, power and
  extreme beauty.
• Comment on the use of the words invest
  divinity - masterpiece in this appropriated
  artwork..

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Double Meaning

• Kruger often exposes us to an aesthetically
  pleasing image with a hidden under text.
• Kruger simply does not want to give us the
  meaning of her work. She wants to challenge us,
  to provoke interest for us to question her
  method- Essentially how we translate Krugers
  compositions is up to our own experiences,
  knowledge and personal interpretation.
• This composition uses a mirror and ones
  reflected image. By looking at the image and text
  separately explain how this artwork is a obvious
  contradictory

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Installations

• Installations provide their audience with the
  opportunity to be totally immersed within an
  artwork.
• Very confrontational.
• What does this artwork scream as a first
  impression??
• What impact would the use of all walls, strong
  colours, emotional faces and bold text in this
  installation have on its audience??
• What makes an installation more powerful than a
  5x7 print??

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• APPROPRIATION-Use of anothers work in a new
  context with no intention of altering its meaning
  / visual impact in a way that both recognises and
  subverts the authority of the original.

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• PARODY-
• The imitation of someone or something in a way
  that ridicules or makes fun of them
• PASTICHE
• Work consisting of motifs borrowed from
  multiple sources often with mixed styles or
  appropriations from a number of well-known
  artworks.

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• IRONY-
• Literal meaning is the opposite to the
  intended meaning, often in a playful or satirical
  manner.
• TRANSGRESSION-
• An act which goes beyond set rules, beyond the
  limits.

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Homework? - Post Modern

• Look through newspapers or magazines and find an
  A4 image which you think has a strong message
  that you could appropriate. Eg) smoking, drink
  driving, skin cancer, plastic surgery, cruelty to
  animals etc.
• Cut out this image and stick it in your
  sketchbook
• Now start brainstorming for original slogans
  which could single-handedly destroy your images
  message.
• Once you have decided on a slogan you must place
  it upon your image creatively .
• Once complete you must use some form of
  technology to hand in your work to your teacher
  eg) photo, scanned copy, photoshop image etc be
  creative and remember- make it humorous. Good
  Luck

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