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Kandinsky Analysis
This Kandinsky poster structures its elements around a grid, in this case a slanted one. It uses a somewhat analogous, warm color scheme. The designer uses big, bold text that really jumps out at the viewer, creating excellent readability while maintaining legibility throughout. This poster has a nice shape of negative space that generally surrounds the inner elements. Said elements are spaced evenly with enough negative space between them, and aforementioned interesting space surrounding them, that it does not read as an island composition. The use of a grid, the sans serif font and the black and white image are all qualities that are characteristic of the International Typographic Style.
A World Wide Statement
Vinyl wallpaper in the lobby of the Hirshhorn museum in Washington DC
Kruger first exhibited her now trademark works in 1979 at the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, Queens. Since then, her work has been shown in museums and galleries worldwide, and has also been used on billboards, buscards, posters, a public park, a train station platform in Strasbourg, France, and in other public commissions.
The image shown above is of the Washington DC’s Hirschhorn museum’s lobby. Kruger’s explosive text was plastered to the walls in December 2012 and will remain there until December 2014.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Kruger
http://www.barbarakruger.com/biography.shtml
Tastefully Ironic
your body is a battleground, 1989
Kruger concocts her own explosive phrases, but she chooses pre-existing photographs for her works. The photographs are taken from the very magazines that celebrate and sell the very ideas that she aims to dispute.
Cultural Idioms for Conventional Wisdom
Untitled 1981
Kruger’s bold phrases strike both our eyes and our minds. The phrases carry an accusatory tone, and use pronouns like “I,” “you” and “we” in order to turn the viewer into the subject. These pronouns also satirically refer to and comment on the roles of men and women in society.
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/feminism/kruger/kruger.htm
Social Commentary at its Finest
Untitled (Perfect), 1980
The aim of Kruger’s work is to comment on society. This image shows a woman with hands clasped. It is reminiscent of prayer and the virgin Mary. The word “perfect” relates this back to how in society’s eyes, women are supposed to have an air of perfection akin to Mary’s. She is fascinated by pop culture, religion, feminism, sexuality, consumerism, corporate greed, politics and power. These things captivate Kruger, and have been a life long study of hers as well as the focus of her art.
“I shop, therefore I am”
Kruger, Untitled (I shop therefore I am), 1987
Before becoming famous, Kruger worked a range of jobs for various magazines. At Conde Nast, she worked on “Mademoiselle” magazine as head designer. Her other job titles included art director, graphic designer and picture editor. She worked for “House and Garden,” “Aperture,” and other publications. This background in advertising and graphic design is evident in the designs that she is now known and renowned for. She takes black and white versions of photographs from existing sources, and overlays them with a bold, italic white font against red rectangles.
A Decade of Transition
Untitled (Not Perfect), 1980
Kruger’s earliest works date to 1969 and are very crafty. She made large woven wall hangings out of beads, feathers and and ribbons. These exemplified the feminist craft revival of the time. She got bored with this due to its detachment from her interest in pop culture and politics, and subsequently left her job at Conde Nast to move out to California. There, she taught English at the University of California for four years. Then, in 1977 she took up photography. She photographed buildings and overlayed them with text musing on the lives of those inside. Unbeknownst at the time, this foreshadowed what was to come in her later works.
Post-Graduation, Kruger’s First Few Years in the Real World
The company that Kruger worked at from 1966-1978
After graduating from Parsons School of Design in 1966, Kruger went off to work at Conde Nast, a publishing company in New York City. She worked there for twelve years and over that time developed some of the graphic methods and styles she would later use in her own art. She created her first art works in the last 1960s, and in these she focused on her own photography.
http://www.modernamuseet.se/en/Moderna-Museet/About/Research/In-the-shadow-of/Barbara-Kruger/
The Education that Started it All
A young Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger has an extensive, and impressive, academic resume. She attended Syracuse University and The School of Visual Arts before finally studying art and design at Parsons under Diane Arbus, a famous black and white portrait photographer.
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