Summary
Highlights
Barbara Kruger reflects on the intimidation she felt visiting galleries as a young person and her desire to create art that is readily understandable and doesn't require decoding. She aims to make her work available to a general public, connecting with viewers who might not know the 'codes' of art.
Kruger shares her upbringing in Newark, New Jersey, in a three-room apartment, highlighting how her background influenced her awareness of how socio-economic factors determine individual potential. Her early career involved various jobs in New York, including a significant period at Condé Nast where she learned about visual communication and the power of imagery through cropping photos and choosing fonts. This experience significantly shaped her artistic approach.
Initially, Kruger questioned whether her design skills could be considered 'art.' She realized she could leverage her fluency in design, using sans-serif fonts and bold red colors to create impactful statements. Unable to afford color printing, she sourced old magazines, converting images to black and white, to further develop her iconic aesthetic. She also discusses how, as her work gained commodity status, she felt compelled to address this directly in her art.
Kruger views architecture as her 'first love,' spatializing ideas and using text and images to activate spaces. She aims for her work to generate commentary, exemplified by her piece 'Your body is a battleground,' created to support women's reproductive rights and encourage participation in marches. She recounts printing and distributing these posters herself after Planned Parenthood declined her offer of help.
Kruger identifies as a feminist but emphasizes an intersectional approach, stating that she cannot consider gender or sexuality apart from class, nor class apart from race. She encourages reflection on how culture constructs and contains individuals, challenging common stereotypes associated with artists. She expresses a desire to avoid romanticized notions of the artist, declining requests for studio visits that might feed into such stereotypes.
Kruger concludes by discussing the 'brutality' of pointing a camera at another person, suggesting a critical stance on visual representation. She incorporates a profound Virginia Woolf quote: 'You know that women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size,' underscoring themes of perception, power, and gender in her work.