Visual Art by artist Barbara Kruger
Abstract
This paper is an introspection of the works of the visual artist Barbara Kruger. She is a conceptual artist and had access to art and advertising spaces that are public. Therefore she decided to the weapon of advertising against itself. Through her work, Kruger brings everyone’s attention to topics of consumerism, feminism. They are a depiction of revolt against a flawed culture, where one cannot feel they exist without purchasing loads of products that they might not need. To introspect the topic in more detail, we will go through three artworks of the artist and try to understand the meaning of each of them. The works that we will be studying will be- 1) I shop therefore I am 2) Money can buy you love and 3) Your misery loves company This paper is thus organised in parts, where each part discusses the works of art by the artist Barbara Kruger one after the other.
Our world is indulged. And it doesn't even realise its own dependence on the habit of indulgence, and the culture of endless purchases. But there are some of us, who are ‘aware’, and who raise their voices against consumerism. And if you have artistic talents at your disposal, and a reach to heads and hearts of people, the task becomes a little less daunting. In this paper let us discuss the applications of art through the case of a particular artist.
One of the foremost person to notice and revolt, was Barbara Kruger. She is a conceptual artist and had access to art and advertising spaces that are public. Therefore she decided to the weapon of advertising against itself. Through her work, Kruger brings everyone’s attention to topics of consumerism, feminism. They are a depiction of revolt against a flawed culture, where one cannot feel they exist without purchasing loads of products that they might not need. To introspect the topic in more detail, we will go through three artworks of the artist and try to understand the meaning of each of them.
Barbara Kruger’s work- ‘I shop therefore I am’ (1990), states the motto of an acquisitive and a greedy world. On it’s face, it looks like a very clever reformulation of artist René Descartes’ famous statement, ‘I think therefore I am’; but what it is, is a disguised disgust at the culture of consumerism. It takes the tone of ultimate sarcasm when the artwork is displayed on shopping bags. This critique of an advertising culture, that suggests buying of ‘products’ just to feel alive, happy, sad, motivated or any other feeling; came at a very good time, when the greed of consumers was at its all time high in the United States.
The second work of Barbara Kruger - ‘Money can buy you Love’(2009), is a loud slam in the face of everyone who likes to think life’s important and necessary things can be bought with money. It shows a child being herself in the background, which is a classic reminder of how children are happy without any possessions and expensive consumer goods. They are the untainted beings who understand happiness as actual joy and not as a function of owning a lot of possessions. This is, like most of her artworks, a sarcastic statement against the culture of consumerism and possessions.
Third artwork of Barbara Kruger- ‘Your misery loves company’ (1985), depicts how we fix the problems in our life with ‘things’ that we value. We throw money at our misery instead of going to the root and solving the problem. We cover up our pain with ‘shiny’ things like gold. This picture along with the apparently gentle words hits the viewer with force and a delayed realization of how they have actually been tricked. They finally ponder and arrive at the actual meaning of the work, that money is not the answer always. This artwork has been displayed in Annina Nosei Gallery, New York.
After looking and understanding at the three artworks of the visual artist Barbara Kruger, we have a good sense of the retaliation and ‘in the face’ nature of the artist's work. I would say, she has been successful in using advertising as a powerful tool to question the status quo of a consumer oriented economy, where ‘more is better’ and ‘consumer is the king’. She has brought to our attention, the emptiness of our being and how brittle our illusion of self worth is. It can be shattered or irreversibly damaged by a simple act of not being able to ‘buy’ a certain product.The artist has thus been very successful in raising social awareness of important social issues including consumerism and feminism. While all the artworks meet their objective of raising awareness and speaking directly to the public; the artistic value of the same is questionable. While the advocates of aesthetics would swoon at a few compositions of Kruger, even the art for cause people should agree, that the artworks are nothing but a twist of a famous line pasted on a picture of a different context. Visual art is expected to be more appealing and higher in aesthetics. Ms. Kruger’s work do not exactly fit the bill. Another facet is the creativity. While I agree placing of objects and text are essential to visual arts, the creativity meter in terms of synthesis of the artwork is a little low here. We each have to decide for ourselves, if ends are more important or the means or the art through which we get there is equally important.
References
Kruger, B. (1990). Untitled (I shop therefore I am) [Drawings and prints]. Zechel & Co. GmbH, Oberndorf/Neckar, Germany.
Kruger, B. (2009). Untitled (Money can buy you love) [Visual Art]. Spruth Magers Gallery, London.
Kruger, B. (1985). Untitled (Your misery loves company) [Visual Art]. Annina Nosei Gallery, New York.
