Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger

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Open Ended

Does anything about the image on the previous slide look familiar to you or remind you of something? If so, what is it?

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Open Ended

Does the image on the previous slide look familiar to you? What is it? What is similar about the two images I showed you?

Multiple Choice

What do you think came first, Barbara Kruger's artwork or the Supreme street brand logo?

• Barbara Kruger's artwork

• Supreme street band logo

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​Vocabulary Preview

• ap·pro·pri·a·tion

• aes·thet·ic

• jux·ta·po·si·tion

• e·voc·a·tive 

• pro·voc·a·tive

ap·pro·pri·a·tion

• the action of taking something for one's own use, typically without the owner's permission.

• Appropriation in art is the use of pre-existing objects or images with little or no transformation applied to them. The use of appropriation has played a significant role in the history of the arts (literary, visual, musical and performing arts).

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Barbara Kruger

• To her images she adds her own blunt slogans that challenge how the viewer might otherwise interpret the pictures. 

• Because she alters images taken from other sources, her work is sometimes referred to as appropriation art.

The catchphrase “I shop therefore I am” was borrowed from the French philosopher Rene Descartes “I think Therefore I am’. The phrase means that provided someone is simply thinking; they are living a meaningful existence, was sufficient proof that they did exist.

Open Ended

What do you think Barbara Kruger means when she uses the phrase "I shop therefore I am?"

What does it mean?

What Kruger tries to imply with “I shop therefore I am,” is that the public is no longer defined by what it thinks, but rather by what they owned.

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During the 1980s, the society witnessed “economic potential of working people widening the availability of credit and stimulating homeownership,” a change that had a serious impact on how people consumed.

I shop therefore I am

Kruger’s art criticizes members of society who feel as though it is necessary to replace their own self-worth with materialistic items.

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aes·thet·ic

• concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty; "the pictures give great aesthetic pleasure“

• a set of principles underlying and guiding the work of a particular artist or artistic movement.

jux·ta·po·si·tion

• two contrasting objects, images, or ideas that are placed together or described together, so that the differences between them are emphasized 

Open Ended

How does looking at the work of art on the previous slide make you feel? What reaction does it make you have?

Barbara Kruger

• Barbara Kruger is known for works that provocatively integrate photographs and text.

• Her art reveals and challenges the ways in which images used in the commercial media often perpetuate stereotypes, portray women, and encourage conformity. 

e·voc·a·tive 

• bringing strong images, memories, or feelings to mind

pro·voc·a·tive 

• causing thought about interesting subjects

• serving or tending to provoke, excite, or stimulate; stimulating discussion or exciting controversy

Open Ended

What work by Barbara Kruger you saw today stood out to you the most? Why?

Open Ended

What is one new thing you learned from this lesson?

Multiple Choice

What does the term appropriation refer to?

• the appreciation of beauty -or- a set of principles guiding the work of a particular artist or artistic movement

• the use of pre-existing objects or images with little or no transformation applied to them

• two contrasting objects, images, or ideas that are placed together so that the differences between them are emphasized

Open Ended

Give an example of how Barbara Kruger uses appropriation in her artwork.

Multiple Choice

What does the term aesthetic refer to?

• the appreciation of beauty -or- a set of principles guiding the work of a particular artist or artistic movement

• the use of pre-existing objects or images with little or no transformation applied to them

• two contrasting objects, images, or ideas that are placed together so that the differences between them are emphasized

Open Ended

What is Barbara Kruger's main aesthetic in her work? (Hint: it is the aesthetic that Supreme appropriated from her art).

Multiple Choice

What does the term juxtaposition refer to?

• the appreciation of beauty -or- a set of principles guiding the work of a particular artist or artistic movement

• the use of pre-existing objects or images with little or no transformation applied to them

• two contrasting objects, images, or ideas that are placed together so that the differences between them are emphasized

Open Ended

How is this image an example of juxtaposition?