It’s just as relevant today, circulating widely after Politico leaked a Supreme Court draft majority decision—passed almost two months later—to overturn Roe v. Wade, effectively eliminating the constitutional right to abortion in the United States. Kruger quickly responded to the ruling with an op-art piece that reads “If the end of Roe is a shock, then you haven’t been paying attention.” To be clear, Kruger is dialed in. Earlier this year, she revealed her habit of scrolling “ideologically intense” websites like anonymous forum 4chan and defunct Neo-Nazi site Stormfront. “Every time I hear people say they are shocked, I’m like… [shakes head],” she told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s that failure of imagination that has led us to today.” She continued: “It would be kind of good if my work became archaic.”
Barbara Kruger Is More Relevant Than Ever
One of the most revered artists of her era, Barbara Kruger rose to prominence in the ‘80s for her simple yet confrontational collages—word-image combinations overlaid with blunt observations in bold white text on blood-red blocks—that, as she describes, “broadly address what it means to be alive on this planet.” Concise, direct, and unsparing, they expose and interrogate power dynamics and gender injustices. Perhaps the 77-year-old Pictures Generation superstar’s most famous work is Untitled: Your Body is a Battleground, a silkscreen that depicts a woman’s face split in positive and negative exposures, creating a stark divide. Produced for the 1989 Women’s March on Washington in support of reproductive freedom, the image is a potent example of protest art.
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Surface Magazine website. Read more about Barbara Kruger.
Stay engaged. Use #UCLAarts to stay connected.
