Critical Analysis of Barbara Kruger

Barabra Kruger

– “I have no complaints except for the world.”

She is a feminist designer, graphic artist and photographer. She is best known for hersilkscreen prints with hard hitting slogans placed across found images.

He work will generally consist of the black and white photographs, with strong letting encase in a red box strategically layered over the image. The image above is an example of this. Her work is conceptual, showing her views and ideas about the world in every piece and often uses means such as sarcasm and irony to display her views.

The piece above is an example of one of her silkscreen prints entitled ‘Your body is a battleground’ and was created in 1989 for the reproductive rights process. It uses her signature palette of red, black and white. The woman’s face is split to represent the positive and negative sides of the argument, and in her view the simplified representation of good versus evil. The contrasts in the image represent the differences between the sides of the argument that often covered sensitive topics such as abortion. Kruger took the feminist side if this argument. The subject also stares straight ahead in the image helping to display Kruger’s belief that this issues need to be hit head on. In the piece she tires to embody the feminist struggle with her simple yet bold aesthetic.

Sources:

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-kruger-barbara.htm

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/feminist/Barbara-Kruger.html