Barbara Kruger was born
in Newark, New Jersey, in 1945. After attending Syracuse University,
the School of Visual Arts, and studying art and design with Diane
Arbus at Parson’s School of Design in New York, Kruger obtained
a design job at Condé Nast Publications. Working for Mademoiselle
Magazine, she was quickly promoted to head designer. Later, she
worked as a graphic designer, art director, and picture editor in
the art departments at “House and Garden,” “Aperture,” and other publications.
This background in design is evident in the work for which she is
now internationally renowned. She layers found photographs from
existing sources with pithy and aggressive text that involves the
viewer in the struggle for power and control that her captions speak
to. In their trademark black letters against a slash of red background,
some of her instantly recognizable slogans read
“I shop therefore I am,” and “Your body is a battleground."
Much of her text questions the viewer about feminism, classicism,
consumerism, and individual autonomy and desire, although her black-and-white
images are culled from the mainstream magazines that sell the very
ideas she is disputing. As well as appearing in museums and galleries
worldwide, Kruger’s work has appeared on billboards, buscards,
posters, a public park, a train station platform in Strasbourg,
France, and in other public commissions. She has taught at the California
Institute of Art, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and
the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in New York and
Los Angeles.
For additional biographic & bibliographic information:
Mary Boone Gallery, New York | Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers, London
Barbara Kruger on the Art21 blog |
