Barbara Kruger

(New Jersey, USA, 1945)

Conceptual artist linked to The Pictures Generation, along with artists such as Louise Lawler, Cindy Sherman and others, for her focus on pop imagery and the preponderance of the image in mass media culture. His combative and provocative art questions stereotypes, demystifies the ins and outs of contemporary art and shakes the collective conscience. His photos were found or appropriated, rarely original, and they slipped through the cracks of mass culture, complicating the claims of authorship and authenticity so important for modern aesthetics. With them he made collages and superimposed declarative legends, where he addressed cultural constructions of power, identity, consumerism and sexuality. In this way, it extrapolates to art the relevance of the dialogue between text and image, and the visual impact of a synthetic and solid message. The marked visual contrast of its red frames, with the black and white images, is comparable to the contrast generated by its texts and images on a conceptual level.