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Lot Essay
Ever since she appeared as part of New York’s Pictures Generation, Barbara Kruger has cast a mirror to society and shed light upon the forces that structure our world. Combining sharp text with crisp imagery, Kruger—recently the subject of solo exhibitions at London’s Serpentine Gallery and the Guggenheim Bilbao—deftly entwines political messages with critiques of consumerism, gender stereotypes, and the media. Untitled (Only the unborn have your right to life) (1986) overlays an image of Steven Spielberg’s E.T.—the movie, a cultural phenomenon, was released four years earlier—with the pithy phrase, ‘Only the unborn have your right to life’, shown in her iconic Futura Oblique font. The two lots offered are Kruger’s black-and-white ‘paste-up’ collage of the composition and the large, unique colour-coupler print in searing red. Characteristic of her practice, the limited palette makes for a striking display of graphic intensity. Untitled (Only the unborn have your right to life) foreshadows the artist’s seminal Untitled (Your body is a battleground), produced for the 1989 Women’s March on Washington to support reproductive freedom and now in the collection of The Broad in Los Angeles.
Untitled (Only the unborn have your right to life) encapsulates Kruger’s broader aesthetic project, which addresses politics and mass media using commercial art strategies. After graduating from New York City’s Parsons School of Design in 1966, Kruger worked as a picture editor for Mademoiselle magazine, an experience which informed her understanding of the cultural power that images possess. It was not until the 1980s, however, that she began her now instantly recognisable use of collage. Kruger’s early ‘paste-ups’ were often composed entirely of found images and texts and were used to produce photographic negatives that the artist would later enlarge. The present two lots offer a rare opportunity to see both the paste-up and the larger, burning red version side by side. Shown together, the two works offer a view of Kruger’s process, the handmade intimacy of the paste-up contrasting with the force of its printed, blown-up red incarnation.
Kruger’s use of text creates a form of direct address that demands a response from the viewer. Despite the ferocity of feeling produced by her missives—which can be pithy, blunt, biting, and strange—ultimately, the artist seeks empathy and connection. ‘I try to take a broader view of how power is threaded through culture and how we are to one another,’ she has said. ‘How we adore or abhor one another, how we caress or kiss or slap one another’ (B. Kruger quoted in ‘“Feels Like Life”: an interview with Barbara Kruger’, The Drift, 20 October 2022). As with her contemporary, Jenny Holzer, who has likewise made text her medium, Kruger views language as a means of upending cultural assumptions. Her audacious juxtapositions and wry commentaries strive to rouse their viewers from passivity. In works such as Untitled (Only the unborn have your right to life) this desire is palpable, and Kruger refuses to remain silent.
Untitled (Only the unborn have your right to life) encapsulates Kruger’s broader aesthetic project, which addresses politics and mass media using commercial art strategies. After graduating from New York City’s Parsons School of Design in 1966, Kruger worked as a picture editor for Mademoiselle magazine, an experience which informed her understanding of the cultural power that images possess. It was not until the 1980s, however, that she began her now instantly recognisable use of collage. Kruger’s early ‘paste-ups’ were often composed entirely of found images and texts and were used to produce photographic negatives that the artist would later enlarge. The present two lots offer a rare opportunity to see both the paste-up and the larger, burning red version side by side. Shown together, the two works offer a view of Kruger’s process, the handmade intimacy of the paste-up contrasting with the force of its printed, blown-up red incarnation.
Kruger’s use of text creates a form of direct address that demands a response from the viewer. Despite the ferocity of feeling produced by her missives—which can be pithy, blunt, biting, and strange—ultimately, the artist seeks empathy and connection. ‘I try to take a broader view of how power is threaded through culture and how we are to one another,’ she has said. ‘How we adore or abhor one another, how we caress or kiss or slap one another’ (B. Kruger quoted in ‘“Feels Like Life”: an interview with Barbara Kruger’, The Drift, 20 October 2022). As with her contemporary, Jenny Holzer, who has likewise made text her medium, Kruger views language as a means of upending cultural assumptions. Her audacious juxtapositions and wry commentaries strive to rouse their viewers from passivity. In works such as Untitled (Only the unborn have your right to life) this desire is palpable, and Kruger refuses to remain silent.