Barbara Kruger [Hardcover]

Barbara Kruger (Author), Hal Foster (Introduction), Miwon Kwon (Contributor), Martha Gever (Contributor), Carol Squiers (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 2010

A seminal volume celebrating the career of influential American artist Barbara Kruger, made in collaboration with the artist.

Bold, philosophical, radical, subversive: the art of Barbara Kruger focuses on decoding the social-psychological messages embedded in popular culture. Marrying pictures to words in a variety of media and sites, Kruger raises issues of power politics, sexuality, and representation. Borrowing slogans and phrases from the lexicon of thought, and using the potent weapon of pure graphics, Kruger’s art offers up powerfully distilled messages of word and image. This beautifully designed book is the most comprehensive volume on Kruger’s body of work to date. The book explores her work over the past thirty years, including many previously unpublished works. Aptly designed to embody a manifesto-like aesthetic, the book also presents bold spreads of the artist’s large-scale works and public projects, which confront such controversial and weighty topics as abortion, consumerism, spirituality, and identity.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Bluntly ambiguous and confrontational, Kruger's unmistakable work evokes an urgent desire to examine and get real about the complexity of human experience in the face of reductive politics and consumer culture. She is best known for images that play with the visual language of advertising: Signature red or white banners of text stamped on black-and-white photographs blast viewers with statements like "Your body is a battleground" (over the face of a woman) or "I shop therefore I am" (in a red square held like a credit card in a large hand). These and many other equally provoking works--including her early explorations pairing photographs and text, humorous sculptures, and full-room installations--make up the first comprehensive retrospective of Kruger's work, which opened last October in Los Angeles's Museum of Contemporary Art and will travel to the Whitney in New York later this summer. This book beautifully presents her work and frames a friendly investigation of its meanings and power in a group of essays that home in on the unsettling jolt her work delivers. It is an excellent and affordable overview of the work of an important contemporary artist. Highly recommended for all libraries.
-Rebecca Miller, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"One of today's most celebrated artists, Barbara Kruger, who began as a graphic designer for Condé Nast and helped pioneer a genre that liberally employs typography and advertising techniques... Among other things, Kruger is a masterly usurper and lampooner of manipulative advertising codes.  And the current book, which spans 30 years, shows just how smartly she has appropriated design and typography in many formats and media." ~New York Times Book Review

"Words are Barbara Kruger's weapons and she wields them masterfully..." ~Nylon

"This comprehensive volume, beautifully designed in close collaboration with the artist herself, explores her output over the past 30 years including many previously unpublished pieces." ~Fest21.com

"Another great book due out soon from Rizzoli New York has just arrived here, a monograph entitled Barbara Kruger, which documents the thought-provoking, Futura Bold Oblique-driven work of the world famous contemporary artist." ~Typo-Graphical

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 307 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (April 20, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847833259
• ISBN-13: 978-0847833252
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 1.4 x 12.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,014 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Pop
  • #47 in Books > Arts & Photography > Museum Exhibition Catalogs

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A bold, thought-provoking dossier of collected images, April 6, 2000

By 

D Sutherland (Wellington, New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You (Hardcover)

For those unaware of Barbara Kruger herself, her images will surely be familiar. Bold, seemingly simple and effortless combinations of black and white images, many culled from '50s magazines, and thought-provoking text catch the viewer off-guard and make one think hard about exactly what the artist is saying. Her themes range broadly over the spectrum of social disenfranchisement and human rights, focussing especially on women's issues. This book is a fantastic dossier of her collected images from the last few decades. They remind the reader anew of her potency as a critic of the patriarchal culture, and lose none of their impact when reproduced on a scale smaller than the original. Interspersed with essays charting the impact of her work, this catalogue provides copious illustrations of all aspects of her work. Many images are familiar, but also included are newer pieces, eg her later sculptural work, and other items of interest such as magazine layouts and book covers. At about one inch thick, the book is surprisingly light, all the better to carry around - after picking it up, you won't want to put it down! For those who have never encountered Barbara Kruger, this is an excellent, even exhaustive, place to begin. For those who know her work already, read this now and rediscover her brilliance.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Subversive Masterpiece, April 4, 2000

By 

Josh De Lon (Muncie, Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You (Hardcover)

"Thinking of You" is an amazing look into the mind of Barbara Kruger, an artist that challenges the viewer's concepts of reality. Most of her work consists of a photo (usually black and white) with text juxtaposed on it. The book also contains explanatory notes on selected works and essays about the artist. Her work is very philosophical and subversive. A must-have for anyone who thinks outside the box.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars i had this one shipped to me in scotland, October 20, 2005

By 

just some "guy" (philadelphia, pa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You (Hardcover)

and it was worth every penny. this is a beautiful and thorough collection of the works of kruger. it was published as a companion to the show that was at MOCA and the Whitney and while the show was great to see this book will be a lasting favorite.