Barbara Kruger – the woman and the artist – has a bold and confrontational nature. I preferred reading Terry Barrett’s “Criticizing Photographs” because it contained a clear and thorough context of where Kruger came from, then gave a solid history of her career and the evolution of Kruger’s artwork. Although it is contextual, biographical information about Kruger helped me understand her perspectives on society and what messages she attempts to present to her viewers. However, the detail about feminism expressed in Conceptual art in “Love for Sale” was helpful for understanding Kruger’s artistic points of view.
I had many thoughts concerning Barbara Kruger and her work, but I will elaborate on one. As detailed in Barrett’s article, she created and exhibited many works of art (made roughly around the same year, 1983) entitled Untitled. As noted in the article, each piece is hardly related in appearance, although each criticizes sociocultural and political institutions and issues occurring before or at the time she made them, impacting the society in which she lives. The messages incorporated into her work and the consistent title of Untitled given shows the essential relationship between the pieces. I also gave thought to the notion of why she titled the pieces Untitled. Her purpose in making the pieces is to bring issues and controversies of the current state of society to the table, which is obviously motivated and mixed by her own feelings about the state of affairs in society. When something is occurring, sometimes it just is, and there is no real definitive way to describe it. This is why I think she gave each piece the title of Untitled because the work, which presents problems to people’s eyes, stands alone in its image and the printed message shown.
The above image is one that exists right next to the bus stop I wait at on Belmont. I first saw it in April or May of this year, and I found it ironic and humorous. It was also interesting that it was stamped on the sidewalk. This morning (Thursday, 9/15), I was standing at that bus stop, and I looked at it again, and it clicked – is this a live example of Conceptual art? Now, I do not know if this is an advertisement or an art statement of any kind simply because I have no background or context to associate with the image. But I deem it appropriate, and I’m willing to give it a shot and make the claim that it is an example. But please, correct me if I’m wrong (and I’m not being sarcastic :P).
~ Gina Marroquin
I really like the artwork that you chose. It is an example of art that many people like yourself see on a daily basis. Most of the time people would not tie Krugers work with street art. I think this was an interesting connection.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. It was great reading about Kruger and her work in such a simple way. Knowing about the author herself, her beliefs and life puts her work into context and makes it much easier to understand where she is coming from.
ReplyDeleteThe picture is really great, I too have started noticing more examples of conceptual art in everyday life. It's truly eye opening to see the different types of work people do and the places you can find them.
It is interesting to think about why she would have been so insistent on naming many of her pieces untitled. I agree with you that it helps to notice the similarities and patterns between her various images when you make everything else, like the titles, uniform. Maybe she doesn't have a way to phrase her message, or maybe she intends it to be such a blatant message to her viewers that it doesn't need a title.
ReplyDelete