Barbara Kruger

Born in 1945, Barbara Kruger is one of my top inspirational socially conscious artists/designers. After attending Syracuse University and Parson’s School of Design in New York, Kruger obtained a design job at Condé Nast Publications. Working for Mademoiselle Magazine, she was quickly promoted to head designer. Later, she worked as a graphic designer, art director, and picture editor in the art departments at House and Garden, Aperture, and other publications. 

This background in design is evident in the work for which she is now internationally renowned. She layers found photographs from existing sources with pithy and aggressive text that involves the viewer in the struggle for power and control that her captions speak to. In their trademark black letters against a slash of red background, some of her instantly recognizable slogans read “I shop therefore I am,” and “Your body is a battleground.” Much of her text questions the viewer about feminism, classicism, consumerism, and individual autonomy and desire, although her black-and-white images are culled from the mainstream magazines that sell the very ideas she is disputing. As well as appearing in museums and galleries worldwide, Kruger’s work has appeared on billboards, buscards, posters, a public park, a train station platform in Strasbourg, France, and in other public commissions.

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Pissed Off Artists Allegedly Urinate on Kruger Art
Installation

A group of artist protesters calling themselves “The
Infinity Lab” were arrested Thursday after witnesses
reported acts of vandalism on the new Barbara Kruger
Installation commissioned by University of California
San Diego’s Stuart Collection.

The protesters chanted, “Another formulaic Kruger”,
as one of them allegedly urinated on the
installation’s floor text. Campus police arrested the
3 protesters as they continued to mock the
installation.

Thursday’s protest may have inspired another
disturbing act of vandalism this time reported at Los
Angeles County Museum of Art on Friday. Apparently, a
protester threw bags of fecal matter at Kruger’s mural
in the Eli Broad Collection.

Due to the two acts, there is elevated security
around all of Barbara Kruger’s public artworks. So
far, Kruger has not been available for comment.

http://rhizome.org/discuss/view/38019

There’s some kind of video out for this too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ2FlqJ9v04