Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You

by Zoé Whitley (Contributor), Peter Eleey (Editor), Robyn Farrell (Editor)

Five decades of iconic and incisive art from Barbara Kruger Since the mid-1970s, Barbara Kruger (born 1945) has been interrogating the hierarchies of power and control in works that often combine visual and written language. In her singular graphic style, Kruger probes aspects of identity, desire and consumerism that are embedded in our everyday lives. This volume traces her continuously evolving practice to reveal how she adapts her work in accordance with the moment, site and context. The book features a range of striking images―from her analogue paste-ups of the 1980s to digital productions of the last two decades, including new works produced on the occasion of the exhibition. Also featured are singular works in vinyl, her large-scale room wraps, multichannel videos, site-specific installations and commissioned works.

The book also showcases how Kruger’s site-specific works have been reconceived for each venue, and includes a section of reprinted texts selected by the artist. Renowned for her use of direct address and her engagement with contemporary culture, Kruger is one of the most incisive and courageous artists working today. This volume explores how her pictures and words remain urgently resonant in a rapidly changing world.

Genres: Art

207 pages, Hardcover

Published June 15, 2021

Reviews

[Urvashi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barbara Kruger is honestly one of my favorite artists. I saw Kruger’s exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago and recently purchased the book that went along with the exhibition. To me, her art makes me feel an anger at the world that would otherwise not exist had we lived in a utopia. Her work on the government through technology from the 1970s foreshadows our current day—with private data collection constantly occurring through smart devices, social media, and security consoles. Kruger’s art forces the viewer to engage with sociopolitical commentary, regardless of the time that they view the piece in—her work critiquing the conservative and capitalist aspects of American society remains relevant to this day, and even more telling of the direction the society is running towards. Her use of billboards and murals, that could then be displayed on the news during the pandemic, as the BLM protests and police brutality gained more numbers, showcased the point of her work— to expose the -isms and -phobias for what they are: hate and fear. Whether this is invasion of data privacy, the control of people’s bodies, the fear of queer and/or Black folk— Kruger makes sure to reveal the ugly and dark sides of society that conservatives are otherwise too blind to see.

[Diogenes Grief · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should have written a review on this MOMA catalogue earlier, since Kruger is undoubtedly one of my favorite artists of all time. This nice interview by The Guardian’s Laura Feinstein (https://www.theguardian.com/artanddes...) nudged me this week in light of the SCOTUS trying to roll the United States of Hypocrisy back into the 19th century with their puritanical power-grab. “Few creators can claim the Museum of Modern Art and Rage Against the Machine as fans and collaborators. Yet, this is the unifying power of 77-year-old conceptual artist Barbara Kruger’s work: it’s immediate, powerful, and, as her legion of imitators has proven, it also looks great on a T-shirt.” True enough. I earned a BA in Art History from Purdue University in the late 90s, a truly enjoyable experience with some amazing professors, most notably the History of Photography profs who were die-hard second-wave feminists, one of whom—on the morning of 9/11—instructed us all to go home and watch the news, but not to trust what they told us. I should have listened to her.

As well, the world should have been listening to Barbara Kruger. She’s been a prescient oracle for the past fifty years. The article above goes on: “As for how the artist feels about the recent Roe ruling, she has choice words for those just tuning in. ‘The repeal of Roe should come as no surprise,’ [Kruger] admonished. ‘Anyone who is shocked by what is happening has not been paying attention,’ she says, pointing to the US’s fraught history of suppressing minority rights while fostering white supremacy. ‘Any surprise at the current state of things is the result of a failure of imagination. Of not understanding the force and punishment of what has happened and worse, what is yet to come.’ She believes that this failure of imagination has contributed to what has devolved into, in her words, an ‘increasingly volatile time of reckoning and vengeance.’"

The David Zwirner gallery offers a wonderfully done digital exhibition here (https://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibiti...) for you to enjoy.

I’ll be seeing RATM in Oakland next March \m/ (https://www.ratm.com/home/). Nobody was truly listening to them either 30 years ago—see the pattern here? Capitalism, Materialism, Patriarchy, Surveillance, Sexism, Hypocrisy, Oppression . . . and the world will suffer for it all. Know your enemies . . . and fight them in every way you can.