Analysis of Barbara Kruger

Analysis of Barbara Kruger For this short essay writing I get an example of single contemporary artist Barbara Kruger. Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual artist. A lot of her effort consists of black and white photographs overlaid with declarative captions-in white-on-red Futura Bold Oblique. The phrases in her works frequently consist of use of pronouns such as â€Å"you†, â€Å"your†, â€Å"I†, â€Å"we†, and â€Å"they†. I begin my essay with the retort how Barbara Kruger be considered illustrative of Baudrillard’s or Barthes’ theories. Postmodernism was born out of a response in opposition to the policy of Modernism. Most particularly, Postmodern artists discarded the Modernist obsession with the aesthetic and began by questioning the recognized qualities tied to this aesthetic. As the Postmodern movement progressed, this critique intensified and moved beyond simply formal concerns; artists also began criticizing many underlying notions of Modernism, together with ideas about creativity and authority. Simultaneously, French philosophers Roland Barthes and Jean Baudrillard introduced theories concerning the rising artistic practices of appropriation and simulation. Barthes, in his elaboration on the theory of appropriation, described principles and practices that a lot of artists were employing in their critiques on Modernism. The work of American artist Barbara Kruger gives the most powerful embodiment of Barthes’ theories of appropriation. Roland Barthes, in his 1967 essay â€Å"The Death of the Author,† stripped mutually authority and authorship from artists and writers, declaring, â€Å"A text is not a line of words releasing a single ‘theological’ meaning (the ‘message’ of the Author-God), but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them new, blend and collide.† This theory not only described the postmodern artistic practices of the time, but it undermi ned Modernism’s lofty goals and claims of creating original artwork. According to Barthes, no author or artist creates something new and unique. Instead, every formed thing is a recycled regurgitation of that which preceded it. As Postmodernism continued to develop, many artists not only acknowledged Barthes’s denouncement of originality but also embraced it as a means through which to further critique the works and tenets of Modernism. These artists favored the readymade object as more powerful than the supposedly new crafted objects shaped by Modernist artists. By openly acknowledging the process of appropriation that occurs within the manufacture of all art, these artists leveraged the power of pre-existing imagery and signs to produce â€Å"new† works with multiple layers and multiple meanings. Barbara Kruger began her career as a graphic designer and commercial artist for publications and magazines such as Mademoiselle. Her work as a postmodern artist began to garner attention in the early 1980s; about fifteen years later than Barthes published â€Å"The Death of the Author.† Kruger’s experience in the profitable design world greatly influenced her work both officially and philosophically. She embraced both the imagery and language of advertising, combining black and white photographs with ambiguous but accusatory statements in collage-like presentations. But she concurrently rejected the philosophies of commercial advertising and the majority, by raising questions concerning gender equality, consumerism, and stereotypes.