Barbara Kruger
Dares to ask the questions at MOCA
The Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA, has reinstalled the monumental wall by Los Angeles-based artist Barbara Kruger.
The work holds a special place in the hearts and memories of LA’s art community. It may also be the highlight of MOCA’s forty-year history. Always provocative, Kruger asks questions about the mural on the facade of the David Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. She loaded the wall with powerful questions, including, “Who is beyond the law?” “Who is bought and sold?” and “Who is free to choose?”. The questions ring very current and relevant.
Barbara Kruger is known for her work as a conceptual artist and collagist. Her highly recognizable style is to use black and white images overlaid with red bands and knocked-out white type, preferably Futura Bold Oblique or Helvetica Ultra Condensed, to deliver a carefully chosen message. Green is now seeping into her palette. Her messages are sometimes feminist and provoke us to examine social justice, stereotypes and more. She is associated with the Pictures Group of artists who emerged in the 1980s and rose to fame as they meditated on the endless flow of mass-produced images. Her Donald Trump cover for New York Magazine is banded with one simple word, LOSER.
Kruger courts controversy and couples that with a real desire to have a positive influence in today’s insane and often cruel world. Her choices of images, color, placement and balance, are to be worshipped.
A major retrospective, the largest in 20 years, is set for the Art Institute of Chicago this fall, which will then travel to MOMA in New York, then to London and the final destination will be the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibit, “Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You.” will include 40 years of work. The art for the show and book are seen here in the images we put together. So dive in and enjoy this tease for more to come from the mistress of provocation: Barbara Kruger.
Images: All Rights reserved Barbara Kruger, courtesy of MOCA
