Barbara KrugerBarbara Kruger Born 1945

One of the most significant figures in feminist Art

Work explores social and political questions

Untitled (Don't be a jerk), billboard installation, Melbourne, Australia, 1996

BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND

• Born in 1945

• Studied design with photographer Diane Arbus

• Graphic Designer for Mademoiselle magazine – magazine layout and advertising background

• 1970s work was crocheted and sewn textiles

• 1979 began producing photo/text collages.

• Has had multiple roles – artist, writer, editor, curator, teacher, film critic for Art Forum – she works outside the artistic frame

Kruger’s art work in the public sphere:What is the effect of the juxtaposition of these images?

In what way can using a public media site (billboard) be seen as a post-modernist and/or feminist strategy?

KRUGER’S AIMS AND CONCERNSART AND CONSUMERISM

“COGITO ERGO SUM” RENE DESCARTES

•How does Kruger manage to blur the boundaries between high and low art here?

- In what ways can this work be seen to offer a critique of consumerism and sexism?

Consumerism & Capitalism

CRITIQUE OF CONSUMERISM

• “the sexist paradigms of advertising led Kruger to create works which comment on the feminine image as projected through the media, the link between women and consumerism, the pressure to purchase products which fulfil the masculine ideal of feminine beauty.”

Self other Nature CulturePassive ActiveSubject ObjectSurveyed (looked at) Surveyer (watcher)DominantSubmissiveReasonEmotionPrivatePublic

BINARY OPPOSITIONS

1. Create two headings – Man / Woman

2. Organise the following terms under those categories, according to the stereotype

Ingres, The Source, 1856

BINARY OPPOSITIONS

MAN WOMANSELF OTHER

CULTURE NATURE

ACTIVE PASSIVE

SUBJECT OBJECT

SURVEYER SURVEYED

DOMINANT SUBMISSIVE

REASON EMOTION

PUBLIC PRIVATE

Untitled (We won’t play nature to your culture) 1983

Kruger is interested in DISRUPTING these binary oppositions that form the basis of many of our gender stereotypes

SURVEYER / SURVEYEDSUBJECTS / OBJECTS

• Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object -- and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.

• (John Berger, Ways of Seeing)

• "In a world ordered by sexual unbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female.

• The male gaze projects its fantasy unto the female figure

• In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be seen to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.“

• (Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”)

• Mulvey argues that modern film is constructed assuming a heterosexual male observer.

• Women can find pleasure in watching, but their pleasure is gained by them watching as if they were men.

THE MALE GAZE

http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/ARTH/ARTH_220/looking.htm

Untitled (Your gaze hits the side of my face)

• Iconography: comment on Kruger’s choice of image

• Composition: why is the text laid out like this?

• What feminist concerns come through?

YOUR BODY IS A BATTLEGROUND

• Used on a poster for “March on Washington” in support of legal abortion, birth control and women’s rights

• Photograph split between positive/negative- contrasts the two sides of the issue – showing “the struggle between woman’s control of her body and the law”

What techniques has Kruger used to catch the viewer’s attention?

• From "Barbara Kruger” exhibition, 1991. Mary Boone Gallery.

• Main text reads: ‘All violence is the illustration of a pathetic stereotype’

• Text on floor reads: “All that seemed beneath you is speaking to you now. All that seemed deaf hears you. All that seemed dumb knows what's on your mind. All that seemed blind sees through you.

• How do you think this would affect a spectator walking into this space?

•How does it challenge high art conventions?

CHALLENGING MEN’S POWERUNTITLED (WHAT BIG MUSCLES YOU HAVE!), 1986 152,5 X 208 CM, CENTRE POMPIDOU, PARIS.

UNTITLED (WE DON’T NEED ANOTHER HERO)

• Iconography – what does a clenched fist and displayed bicep represent?

• How does this work address gender stereotypes?

Compare to – Norman Rockwell The Muscleman 1941

•Punchy Slogans

•Cleverly and bold linking slogans to images

•Innovative editing and photographic techniques