Barbara Kruger: ‘Anyone who is shocked by what’s happening has not been paying attention’
The outspoken artist talks about the repeal of Roe v Wade and the legacy of her art, as a number of exhibitions of her work go on view.
"Few creators can claim the Museum of Modern Art and Rage Against the Machine as fans and collaborators. Yet, this is the unifying power of 77-year-old conceptual artist Barbara Kruger’s work: it’s immediate, powerful, and, as her legion of imitators has proven, it also looks great on a T-shirt.
Known for iconic text works proclaiming “I shop therefore I am” and “Your body is a battleground” – the latter given new life last spring as an incendiary cover for New York Magazine – the artist remains ever humble. “I believe that no work of art is as brilliant, amazing, awesome and major, or as failed, ridiculous, horrible and minor as it’s written to be,” she tells the Guardian. “All the hyperbolic claims, judgments, anointings and condemnations are as symptomatic as the works they address.”
Kruger, who first gained widespread recognition for her banners for the 1989 Women’s March on Washington for legal abortion, has been a tireless champion for reproductive freedoms for over four decades. Her work is known for challenging society’s views on beauty, identity, social constructs and how we perceive our power (or lack thereof) within societal structures. With the supreme court’s recent movement to overrule the landmark Roe v Wade decision, disabling the constitutional right to abortion in the United States, Kruger’s art has never been more relevant. Even if that recognition may come as bittersweet." — Laura Feinstein, July 7, 2022
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the The Guardian website.
Read more about Barbara Kruger.
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