Barbara Kruger: an artistic analysis Favorite 

Barbara Kruger: an artistic analysis
Barbara Kruger was born in 1945 in Newark, New Jersey. She attended Parsons School of Design in New York City, and was promoted to head designer within a year of her beginning at Conde Nast Publications at Mademoiselle magazine. She created her signature work in 1979, which features large black and white images overlaid with text in bold writing. Some of the main colors she uses in her work are red, white, and black. This form of typography that she uses is iconic to commercial branding, which is why it captures our eye. Further, the text she uses is meant to wrap each viewer into their piece by using the words ‘I’ or ‘you’. She has also produced some visual exhibits in the form of video and other audio exhibits. Kruger works to address the media and politics by using the same tactics they do to bring people in: sensation, authority, and directness. She is also a big supporter of feminism, which is a constantly recurring theme in her work.
Starting with some of her earliest work, “(Untitled) Your body is a battleground”, which was produced in 1989, you can see the strong ties of her work to feminism and women’s rights movements. The work features her famous color usage of black, white and red, along with the image of a woman. The woman’s face is divided, black and white on one side and having the colors inverted on the other side. The work was originally produced for the Women’s March in Washington in support of reproductive freedom. Though its origin is tied to a specific moment, the power of the work lies in the timelessness of its declaration. The phrase “Your body is a battleground” signifies that the fight for reproductive freedom is a battle like any other, leaving many women as the casualties.
Kruger’s work continues this feminist and women’s rights pattern into the 90s with her work “Untitled (Pro-life for the unborn/Pro-death for the born)”. The work features an image of former President George Bush in black and white, with red text overlaying the image saying “Pro-life for the unborn” and “Pro-death for the born”. George Bush was well known for being strongly against abortion, placing governmental restrictions on funding for abortion centers and research not even after his first full day in power (The Guardian). The power of Kruger’s art does not stop there, though, as President George Bush was in power while the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continued. His lack of care for women’s health and the life of other innocent lives is represented through this piece.

Furthermore, the effects of Kruger and her art can be seen well into today, with her work “Who Becomes a “MURDERER’ in Post-Roe America?”. The piece was done in 2022 following the overturning of the supreme court legislation Roe v. Wade, which protected women’s rights to safe abortions. The piece is a replica of her previous work “(Untitled) Your body is a battleground”, using the same imagery but replacing the text with “Who Becomes a ‘MURDERER’ in Post-Roe America?”. The repurposing of the same image should not be overlooked as it highlights the constant and ongoing battle for women’s rights, as the original work was published in 1989. A thirty three year time difference and still the same argument being had highlights the need for a better approach to women’s health, legislation, and an overall improvement to government.
Through searching and learning more about Kruger's work, we find a need for her work in parts of the globe where gender roles are still pushed and there is not as much freedom for women. A concept we have developed is formulating an exhibit in Bangkok, Thailand, Thailand ranks low on the Freedom Index, with a 30/100 score, indicating the country is not very free. In the Freedom Indexes Report, they stated: “Women are underrepresented in government at all levels, composing only 15.8 percent of the House of Representatives and 10.5 percent of the Senate. Few women hold leadership roles in political parties. Women’s interests are generally not prioritized in political life...”
Considering this information, we believe that Kruger's work would be able to help make women feel like they have a voice, and stand up to the inequalities they face. Kruger's work, old and potentially some new work for the exhibit, can be showcased in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.

The introduction of her work in a large populated city would bring more awareness to the work and exhibit we plan to establish, and would start a dialogue about feminism in Thailand. Investigating the current architecture of the city, there are already flashy and colorful signs on main roads. We would follow some of Krugers previous work and place her art in parks and active areas where people gather such as skate parks, parks, and basketball courts. This would make her design stand out to the eye with the contrasting colors or green and grey to red, white, and black. Further, this exhibit can be connected to some form of an interactive one, where women can speak their minds freely in the safety of the exhibit and interact with other women in Bangkok to help lead activist movements for their rights.

Bibliography
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Barbara Kruger: Thinking of you. I mean me. I mean you. | moma. (n.d.-a). https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5394
Cascone, S. (2022, May 11). Barbara Kruger explains her cover for New York Magazine, a politically charged polemic against the end of Roe v. Wade. Artnet News. https://news.artnet.com/art-world-archives/barbara-kruger-body-battlegro...
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Barbara Kruger. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Barbara-Kruger
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.-b). Cogito, ergo sum. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/cogito-ergo-sum
Graphéine, T. (2022, December 19). Barbara Kruger/supreme: Who’s hijacking whom? Graphéine - Agence de communication Paris Lyon. https://www.grapheine.com/en/history-of-graphic-design/barbara-kruger-su...
Guardian News and Media. (2001, January 23). Bush declares war on Abortion. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jan/23/usa.martinkettle1
Kruger, B. (n.d.). Barbara Kruger: Untitled (thinking of you). Barbara Kruger | Untitled (Thinking of you) | Whitney Museum of American Art. https://whitney.org/collection/works/12926#:~:text=Who%20is%20the%20%E2%...
Publishers, F. (2020, August 9). Barbara Kruger: Early works. Frameweb. https://frameweb.com/article/barbara-kruger-early-works
Thailand: Freedom in the World 2023 Country Report. Freedom House. (n.d.). https://freedomhouse.org/country/thailand/freedom-world/2023
User, G. (2022, July 5). Exhibition review: Barbara Kruger at sprüth Magers. Musée Magazine. https://museemagazine.com/culture/2022/7/4/exhibition-review-barbara-kruger