Modern Art Paper - Early 20th Century Art

Zachary Pierre

Early 20th Century Art

Writing Assignment I

June 10th, 2016

Zachary Pierre  

Early 20th Century Art 

Writing Assignment I 

June 10th, 2016 

For  writing assignment one I chose The Barbara Kruger photo. Barbara Kruger is an  artist. She used  short sentences and sometimes single words on top of a picture, resulting in biting criticism of people and or  society. In the ”I Shop Therefore I am” I found in my research that the photo was inspired by a French philosopher René Descartes famous quote "Cogito ergo sum" which translates to "I think therefore I am".  My best description for this quote is that the philosopher believes that whatever you set your mind to you will become. I found another description where the person though that that quote meant because “you exist simply because you made a conscious effort to wonder its existence.”  

Barbara Kruger was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1945. In 1964 to she enrolled into Syracuse University. She had a huge interest in graphic design, poetry, writing. She often attended poetry readings. After her first year at Syracuse she moved to New York permanently.She left SU and attended Parsons School of Design in 1965. After a year at Parsons, Kruger left school and worked at Condé Nast Publications. Not long after she started to work at Mademoiselle magazine as an entry-level designer, she was promoted to head designer a year later.” (http://www.arthistoryarchive.com) 

“Later still she worked as a graphic designer, art director, and picture editor in the art departments at “House and Garden”, “Aperture,” and did magazine layouts, book jacket designs, and freelance picture editing for other publications. Her decade of background in design is evident in the work for which she is now internationally renowned. Like Andy Warhol, Kruger was heavily influenced by her years working as a graphic designer.” (http://www.arthistoryarchive.com) 

Now that you have a brief bio of Barbara Kruger. We can now talk about her work. She  has had several pieces in galleries such as; Mary Boone Gallery in New York, The Yvon Lambert Gallery in Paris, and Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Whitney Museum in New York, Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago and the Tate Gallery in London. All those museums are top museums in the world.  Kruger's words and pictures have been displayed in public spaces too. They have also been turned into posters, postcards, t-shirts, billboards and on train station platforms. Kruger has made video, film, audio and projection as well. Her work focuses on the kindnesses and brutalities of social life. Also about how we act towards one another.