Barbara Kruger & Mercantilism

I shop therefore I am (1987) Barbara Kruger 

Face It (Green) 2007 Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger has been described as a feminist, conceptual and a pop artist.

Her work reflects her interest in graphic design, photography, poetry and writing.

Barbara Kruger's graphic work has a very distinctive style that is shown in a wide range of her works. It more often than not consists of black-and-white photographs with overlaid collage style captions set in a white typeface, Futura Bold Oblique, over a ‘slashing’ of red background. However the second piece still consists of the type and slashing, however the background has been altered to be green. The phrases usually make a bold statement and commonly use pronouns such as you, I, your, we and they. She combines imagery with the clever use of text to create criticism and cause the viewer to think twice. A large amount of her text questions the viewer about feminism, classicism, consumerism, and individual desire. She also uses black and white images cut from existing sources such as the media and mainstream magazines, which further creates controversy and an immediate response. As the magazines that she is sourcing the images from are often selling of promoting the commercial things, and objects of desire that she is challenging the viewer to rethink. I think that Barbara Kruger’s style is immensely effective and visually appealing to the viewer. Her artworks are cleverly composed and thought out and highly original. She is an inspiration to me as a student designer

There are strong and effective messages being portrayed in all of Kruger’s artwork. In piece one, ‘Untitled’ (‘I shop therefore I am’), I think the main message being portrayed is the relationship between many people these days who rely on shopping and purchasing objects of desire as a temperamental happiness fix. These days a majority of people in developed countries live in a consumer culture, were shopping has turned into a lifestyle were the power of consumption is stopping people from finding true and sincere happiness.

In the second piece ‘Untitled’ (‘Face It (Green), I think a similar message is aimed at the audience as it says on the tag of the garment. By purchasing it will not change as a person just make you have less money and look ‘cool’. However it will not make you happy or more successful as it is what is on the inside that really counts. The old saying ‘money doesn’t buy you happiness’ comes to mind when studying the deeper messages of these two artworks.

Mercantilism can be defined as; ‘an economic system (Europe in 18th century) to increase a nation's wealth by government regulation of all of the nation's commercial interests.’ It was put in place to aim to make everybody more equal and put an end to the hierarchy of the rich and poor, making goods more accessible to poorer families.

Barbara Kruger’s two works can connect with this concept as I think she is trying to make more people less reliant on commercial goods for happiness. It also maybe that the concept of Mercantilism has gone to far the other way and that more and more people find it to accessible to purchase expensive goods and in away never earn true happiness.

Title: ‘All eyes on you’

I feel this is an appropriate title as Kim Kardashian is a socialite who is famous for doing nothing. I feel that it is incorrect the way the media portrays people. It also has relation to Kruger’s work talked about above as this art has a socialite pictured however the real artist behind it is Kruger who is widely known for being an extremely talented designer, not for taking her clothes of and being a ‘sex’ symbol. I think the audience of this work would just think of the glamorized woman on the front, and not have any idea about the real artist behind it. This I feel backs up the meaning behind Kruger’s earlier work regarding more people ‘buying’ happiness.


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