Barbara Kruger
(Born 1945)
Barbara Kruger was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1945. She graduated from Parson’s School of Design in New York City in 1966 and began developing her distinguished, well-known style in the late 1970s. Kruger's early career in graphic design and advertising, as well as her love of poetry, form the basis of her photograph and text-based works which take advantage of traditional iconography and slogans to make incisive commentary against pervading social stereotypes and consumerist culture. Through her work, Kruger explores these themes and the powerful role of mass-media in the perpetuation and establishment of social norms, particularly in regard to women and their place in society. When overlapped in Kruger’s works, previously unrelated images and slogans take on new dimension and meaning. They transmit a surprisingly different tone than the one propagated in mainstream media and question issues of consumerism, feminism, desire and individuality. Kruger’s intense compositions, usually in a limited palette of black, white and red, take on multiple mediums including posters, electronic signboards, billboards and unframed photographs.
Barbara Kruger has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Recent solo exhibitions of her work have been held in institutions such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. in 2016, Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich in 2011, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 2008, the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, California in 2005, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 2000. She has also participated in exhibitions in major institutions such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Metropolitan Muesum of Art in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, California. Kruger has participated in several Whitney Biennials, and her work has been featured in multiple publications. Barbara Kruger lives in New York and Los Angeles.
EDUCATION
1966 | Parsons School of Design, New York
1965 | Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
[Forthcoming] Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You., Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
2019
Kaiserringträgerin Der Stadt Goslar, Mönchehaus Museum Goslar, Goslar, Germany
Forever, Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
2018
1978, Mary Boone, New York
2017
Forever, Sprüth Magers, Berlin, Germany
2016
In the Tower: Barbara Kruger, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Barbara Kruger: Empatía, Metro Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico
Barbara Kruger: Untitled (Blind Idealism Is...), The High Line, New York
2015
Early Works, Skarstedt, London, United Kingdom
2014
Modern Art Oxford, United Kingdom
2013
Believe + Doubt,Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria
Questions, Arbeiterkammer Wien, Vienna, Austria
Creation Mondiale, "Reflections/La Dance Project,” Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, France
2012
Belief + Doubt, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
2011
L & M Arts Los Angeles, Venice, California
The Globe Shrinks, Sprüth Magers, Berlin, Germany
Edition 46: Barbara Kruger, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany
2010
Plenty, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York
The Globe Shrinks, Mary Boone Gallery, New York
Circus, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
2009
Sprüth Magers, London, United Kingdom
Between Being Born and Dying, Lever House, New York
Barbara Kruger: Pre-digital 1980-1992, Skarstedt Gallery, New York
Paste Up, Sprüth Magers, Berlin, Germany
2008
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
2007
Picture/Readings' 1978, Mary Boone Gallery, New York
2006
Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover, Germany
2005
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, California
Australian Center for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia
Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland
Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland
2004
Mary Boone Gallery, New York
Twelve, Mary Boone Gallery, New York
2003
Sprüth Magers Lee, London, United Kingdom
2002
Palazzo delle Papesse - Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy
2001
South London Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2000
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1999
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris, France
1998
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York
1997
18 Wooster Street/Deitch Projects, New York
Mary Boone Gallery, New York
1996
Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne, Australia
1994
Mary Boone Gallery, New York
1992
Magasin, Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France
1991
Mary Boone Gallery, New York
1990
Kolnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany
Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina
1989
Mary Boone Gallery, New York
1988
National Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
1987
Mary Boone Gallery, New York
1986
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois
University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, California
1985
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
1984
Crousel/Hussenot Galerie, Paris, France
Nouveau Musee, Lyon, France
Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
1983
Institute of Contemporary Art, London, United Kingdom
1980
MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021
Taking Space: Contemporary Women Artists and the Politics of Scale, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
2020
20/20, David Zwirner, New York
Desire, Knowledge, and Hope (with Smog), The Broad, Los Angeles, CA
Don't let this be easy, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
The Land and the Body, Heather James Fine Art, Montecito, CA
Modern Women: Modern Vision Works from the Bank of America Collection, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL
2019
Inaugural Exhibition, Skarstedt 64th Street, New York
1989 – Culture and Politics, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden
California Artists from the Marciano Collection, Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
Direct Message: Art, Language, and Power, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
The Foundation of the Museum: MOCA's Collection, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, CA
Inside – Out: Constructions of the Self, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany
Local Histories, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin
More is More: Multiples, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
On the Dominant Divide: American Landscapes from John Philip Falter to Barbara Kruger, Heather James Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA
Political Affairs – Language Is Not Innocent, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Germany
She/Her: A New Look at the History of Art Since 1900, Heather James Fine Art [online]
Unparalleled Journey through Contemporary Art of Past 50 Years, Rubell Museum, Miami
Constructing Identity in America (1766–2017), Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
2018
Breaking the Mold: Investigating Gender, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC
The World We Want, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Unspeakable: Atlas, Kruger, Walker: Hammer Contemporary Collection, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
1989 – Culture and Politics, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden
California Artists from the Marciano Collection, Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
Local Histories, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin
More is More: Multiples, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
On the Dominant Divide: American Landscapes from John Philip Falter to Barbara Kruger, Heather James Fine Art [online]
After Documentary, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winstron Salem, NC
SWINGERS, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York
The Street: Where the World is Made, MAXXI, Rome
The Brush for Hire: Norm Laich & Many Other Artists, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Graphic Revolution: American Prints 1960 to Now, Saint Louis Art Museum
Knock Knock: Humour in Contemporary Art, South London Gallery, London, UK
Remember to React: 60 Years of Collecting, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL
2017
An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney's Collection 1940-2017, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Für Barbara, Hall Art Foundation, Schloss Derneburg Museum, Derneburg, Germany
Space Force Construction, V-A-C Foundation, Palazzo delle Zattere, Venice, Italy
2016
Portraits, Skarstedt, New York
Under Arms. Fire & Forget 2, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
More Than Words: Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, The Westport Arts Center, Westport Connecticut
Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, California
2015
Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, Sprüth Magers, Berlin, Germany
Fire and Foreget: On Violence, KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
Cannibalism? On Appropriation in Art, Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection , Rubell Family Collection, Miami, Florida
The Great Mother , Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan, Italy
Remain in Light: Photography from the MCA Collections , Hawkesburg Regional Gallery, Australia
America Is Hard to See , Whitney Museum, New York
2014
No Problem: Cologne/New York 1984–1989, David Zwirner, New York
Pop Departures, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington.
Urban Theater: New York in the 1980s, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas
Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California.
Diane von Furstenberg: Journey of a Dress, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Wilshire May Company Building, Los Angeles, California
Remain in Light: Photography from the MCA Collections, Ipswich Art Gallery, Australia. Traveled to Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Australia; Bendigo Art Gallery, Australia; Artspace Mackay, Australia; Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Australia.
19th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Under Pressure, Missoula Art Museum, Missoula, Montana
2013
Zeichen. Sprace. Bilder – Schrift in der Kunstt Seit den 1960er Jahren, Städtische Galerie, Karlsruhe, Germany
Not Yet Titled, Museum Ludwig Köln, Cologne, Germany
WWTBD – What Would Thomas Bernhard Do? Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier, Vienna, Austria
All You Need is Love, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Homebodies, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
DLA Piper Series: Constellations, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Light My Fire, Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada
Inccontri, Schauwerk, Sindelfingen, Germany
2012
Color Bind: the MCA Collection in Black and White, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Now’s the Time: Recent Acquisitions, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Visual Conversations: Selections from the Collection, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, New York
Re-Opening Exhibition, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts
This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Beyond Imagination, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
ARTandPRESS Kunst. Wahrheit. Wirklichkeit, ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany
Art and press Kunst. Wahreit. Wirklichkeit, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany
Bye Bye American Pie, MALBA – Museo de Art Latinoamericano, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Domination, Hegemony and the Panopticon Works from the Farook Collection, Traffic, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2011
That’s The Way We Do It. The Techniques and Aesthetic of Appropriation, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria
Unsettled: Photography and Politics in Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
No Substitute, Glenstone, Potomac, Maryland
The Deconstructive Impulse: Women Artists Reconfigure the Signs of Power, 1973-1992, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
The Deconstructive Impulse: Women Artists Reconfigure the Signs of Power, 1973-1992, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, New York
September 11, MoMA PS1, New York
American Exuberance, Rubell Family Collections, Contemporary Arts Foundation, Miami, Florida
Sympathy for the Devil, Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels, Belgium
Tales of the City: Art Fund International and the Goma Collection, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland
2010
America: Now and Here, cross-country traveling exhibition
Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
PQ: 100, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, New York
Your History is Not Our History, Haunch of Venison, New York
In the Vernacular, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
2009
Beg Borrow and Steal, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, Florida
Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
Dress Codes: The Third ICP Triennial of Photography and Video, International Center of Photography, New York
Strait-Jacket, Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto, Canada
elles@centrepompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
A Tribute to Ron Warren, Mary Boone Gallery, New York
WALL ROCKETS: Contemporary Artists and Ed Ruscha, Albright- Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
The Pictures Generation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Silent Writings, Espace Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
You will never wake up from this beautiful dream, Vanmoerkerke Collection, Oostende, Belgium
2008
Burning Down the House: Building a Feminist Art Collection, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
WALL ROCKETS: Contemporary Artists and Ed Ruscha, FLAG Art Foundation, New York
People ‘Weekly, The Amie and Tony James Gallery, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, New York
Book/Shelf, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Here and Now, Regina Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Ringling Retro: Modern and Contemporary Art, The Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida
Women in the City, a West of Rome project, Los Angeles, California
2007
Multiplex: Directions in Art, 1970 to Now, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Panic Attack! Art in the Punk Years, Barbican Art Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Dangerous Beauty, Chelsea Art Museum, New York
2006
Belief, Singapore Biennial, Singapore
New York, New York: Fifty Years of Art, Architecture, Photography, Film and Video, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco
Full House: Views of the Whitney's Collection at 75, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Where Are We Going? Selections from the François Pinault Collection, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
A Short History of Performance – Part IV,Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2005
Miradas y Conceptos en la Collección Helga de Alvear, Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo, Badajoz, Spain.
American Matrix: Contemporary Directions for the Harn Museum Collection, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
The Experience of Art, Italian Pavilion, La 51 Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Inside Out Loud: Visualizing Women's Health in Contemporary Art, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in Saint Louis, Saint Louis, Missouri
2004
White: Whiteness and Race in Contemporary Art,International Center of Photography, New York
Perspectives @25: A Quarter Century of New Art in Houston, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas
North Fork/South Fork: East End Art Now/Part II, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York
Flowers, Mary Boone Gallery, New York
2003
Me & More, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland
2002
Shopping, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
Sans Commune Mesure, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France
2000
Around 1984: A Look at Art in the Eighties, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York
1999
The American Century: Art and Culture 1950-2000, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1998
Read My Lips: Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
1996
Thinking Print: Books to Billboards, 1980-95, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1995
Passions Privees, Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
1994
Wall to Wall, Serpentine Gallery, London, United Kingdom
1993
Image Makers, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York.
1992
More Than One Photography: Works Since 1980 From the Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1991
Devil on the Stairs: Looking Back on the Eighties, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1990
Art et Publicite, Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
The Decade Show, Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art/The New Museum of Contemporary Art/The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
1989
Image World: Art and Media Culture, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Magiciens de la Terre, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
A Forest of Signs: Art in the Crisis of Representation, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
Bilderstreit, Rheinhalle, Koln, West Germany
1988
Biennial of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
1987
Documenta 8, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, West Germany
L'epoque, la mode, la morale, la passion, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1987
Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1986
Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
An American Renaissance: Painting and Sculpture from 1940 to the Present, Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Painting and Sculpture Today: 1986, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana.
1985
Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1984
Sexuality and Representation, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, United Kingdom
1983
Times Square Spectochrome Sign, New York
1983 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Currents, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts
1982
Image Scavengers, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts
La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Documenta 7, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, West Germany
1981
Nineteen Emerging Artists, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York