monography: Barbara Kruger

I would like to start a new section of the blog dedicated to all of those artists who influenced our way to communicate. I am proud to dedicate the first post to the conceptual artist Barbara Kruger.

Barbara Kruger was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1945 and left there to study at Syracuse University and Parsons School of Design. After a year at Parsons, Kruger left school and worked at Condé Nast Publications in 1966. She was promoted to head designer a year later after she started to work at Mademoiselle magazine as an entry-level designer.

Barbara Kruger' signature is clearly infuenced by the Russian Constructivist of the begninnig of the century. Black and white photographs overlaid with red captations, announcing strong claims written in a white Futura Bold or Helvetica Condensed.

Gustav Klutsis, 1930

Barbara Kruger, 1989

The artworks, designed to be applied on any scale, has been distributed widly in the form of umbrellas, tote bags, postcards, mugs, T-shirts and posters. The broad circulation attempts to call attention to the role of the advertising in public debate an to break the boundries between art and commerce.

In recent years Barbara Kruger has extended her aesthetic project, creating public installations museums, train stations, parks, and on buses and billboards around the world.