1. Describe the 'style' that Kruger has used in the two presented works.
During the early 1980s she perfected a signature agitprop style, using cropped, large-scale, black-and-white photographic images juxtaposed with raucous, pithy, and often ironic aphorisms, printed in Futura Bold typeface against black, white, or deep red text bars on a large scale with a powerful image. The inclusion of personal pronouns in works like Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face) (1981) and Untitled (I Shop Therefore I Am) (1987) implicates viewers by confounding any clear notion of who is speaking. These rigorously composed mature works function successfully on any scale. Certainly her style has become her trademark that look is black and white images encased in a red frame.
2. What are some of the concepts and messages that Kruger is communicating in them?
According to Slate, Kruger is the collagist who slaps sarcastic slogans boxed in red on old black-and-white photographs. "I shop therefore I am"; "It's a small world but not if you have to clean it"; "Your body is a battleground"--you've read her aphorisms on shopping bags and coffee mugs and bus stop shelters and magazine covers and the Op-Ed page of the New York Times.
3. Do these images communicate these ideas effectively? Explain your answer.
This is really hard question but in my opinion is that her works are much different from general installation work so I feel hard to understand her thought by her individually feeling. It means her work’s image and sound effect not natural as the installation arts. However, posters are a kind of art and design work that can tell a story in one still frame. The red framing of the image and the bold text give strong feelings of advertising so the mass of society regarded her concepts such as political and social views and accepted throughout her work presenting. We can watch and read the story by their imagination by following the guidance of her.
4. Define the concept of Mercantilism and explain how these two examples can connect with the concept.
(1). Belief in the benefits of profitable trading; commercialism.
(2). the economic theory that trade generates wealth and is stimulated by the accumulation of profitable balances, which a government should encourage by means of protectionism
Barbara Kruger is a graphic designer but she does not create signs, symbols, or messages that promote mass-market consumption or corporate identity. It means she is not a commercial artist. However, her artworks were widely distributed in the form of umbrellas, tote bags, postcards, mugs, T-shirts, posters, and so on. Confuses the boundaries between art and commerce otherwise calls attention to the role of the advertising in public debate.
5. Upload a more recent example of Kruger's work where she has used a new medium that is not graphic design. Title your image of the chosen work and comment on your response to the work. How do you think the audience would experience this work?
If the audience does not have knowledge about Kruger’s work, they will think this cover is very sexy image but some people may be disappointed with this image like me because I think she is not a commercial artist.
Barbara Kruger, Ad Industry Heroine
BARBARA KRUGER, YOUR BODY IS A BATTLEGROUND
Google dictionary
Untitled, 2010 by Barbara Kruger for W Magazine feat. Kim Kardashian
