Born: January 26, 1945 in Newark, NJ
Known for: photography, collage, found images, feminist art, social commentary, art criticism
Barbara Kruger is an artist who is famous for photography and collage installations. She uses photographic prints, video, metals, cloth, magazines and other materials to create pictures, collage and other works of art. She is known for her feminist art, conceptual art and social criticism.
The Barbara Kruger Look
Barbara Kruger is perhaps best known for her layered photographs coupled with confrontational words or statements. Her work explores society and gender roles, among other themes. She is also known for her typical use of a red frame or border around black and white images.
A few examples of phrases Barbara Kruger juxtaposes with her images:
- "Your fictions become history"
- "Your body is a battleground"
- "I shop therefore I am"
- Questions such as "Who prays loudest?" or "Who laughs last?" - the latter accompanying a skeleton standing up at a microphone
Life Experience
Barbara Kruger was born in New Jersey. She studied at Syracuse University and the Parsons School of Design during the 1960s, including time spent studying with Diane Arbus and Marvin Israel.
Barbara Kruger has worked as a designer, magazine art director, curator, writer, editor and teacher in addition to being an artist. She described her early magazine graphic design work as big influence on her art.
Worldwide Acclaim
Barbara Kruger's work has been displayed around the world, from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, from Ottawa to Sydney. She has taught at the California Institute of Art, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley. She has lived and worked in Los Angeles and New York, praising both cities for producing art and culture instead of just consuming it.
Texts and Images
Barbara Kruger has published essays and social criticism that engage some of the same questions raised in her art work: questions about society, media images, power imbalance, sex, life and death, economics, advertising and identity. Her 1994 book Remote Control: Power, Cultures, and the World of Appearances is a critical examination of the ideology of popular television and film.
Other Barbara Kruger art books include Love for Sale (1990) and Money Talks (2005). The 1999 volume Barbara Kruger, reissued in 2010, gathers her images from the 1999-2000 exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Whitney Museum in New York.