Barbara Kruger Artek

Rising to prominence in the 1980s, iconic conceptual artist Barbara Kruger pioneered a combination of type and image in her signature colors of black, white and red that continues to captivate audiences and posit a forceful feminist critique of media and politics.

Kruger examines social issues and cultural forces like sexism and consumerism in her typically large-scale, widely imitated work, which sees her layering terse chunks of text in fonts such as Futura Bold Oblique over found black and white mass media photographic images. Radical and stimulating, her collages draw on her background as a commercial graphic designer for magazines at Condé Nast as well as her albeit brief time as a student at the Parsons School of Design in New York City, where Kruger studied under artists such as Diane Arbus.

Kruger’s use of straightforward, accessible language to make powerful statements recalls advertising slogans or magazine headlines — by employing the structure of the very thing she is critiquing, she subverts that specific medium’s reach and meaning.

The phrases that Kruger superimposes onto the imagery in her work are as pointed, direct and authoritative as the visuals, with best-known examples including I Shop Therefore I Am and You Are a Captive Audience. The artist is also a staunch feminist, using her work to make overt political statements such as in Untitled (Your Body Is a Battleground), which was initially created in 1989 to promote a women’s march in Washington, D.C., aimed at antiabortion legislation. By using “you” and “I,” Kruger invites viewers into the piece and forces them to reflect on their own position in society as well as how they interact with one another in contemporary life. In an increasingly politicized era that finds us engulfed in imagery like never before, her art is more urgent and arresting than ever.

Kruger’s works can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Whitney Museum of American Art and other institutions.

Find Barbara Kruger art on 1stDibs.

Perhaps one of the most influential contemporary art movements, Pop art emerged in the 1950s. In stark contrast to traditional artistic practice, its practitioners drew on imagery from popular culture — comic books, advertising, product packaging and other commercial media — to create original Pop art paintings, prints and sculptures that celebrated ordinary life in the most literal way.

ORIGINS OF POP ART

• Started in Britain in the 1950s, flourished in 1960s-era America
• “This is Tomorrow,” at London's Whitechapel Gallery in 1956, was reportedly the first Pop art exhibition
• A reaction to postwar mass consumerism
• Transitioning away from Abstract Expressionism
• Informed by neo-Dada and artists such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg; influenced postmodernism and Photorealism 

CHARACTERISTICS OF POP ART 

• Bold imagery
• Bright, vivid colors
• Straightforward concepts
• Engagement with popular culture 
• Incorporation of everyday objects from advertisements, cartoons, comic books and other popular mass media

POP ARTISTS TO KNOW

• Richard Hamilton
• Andy Warhol
• Marta Minujín
• Claes Oldenburg
• Eduardo Paolozzi
• Rosalyn Drexler
• James Rosenquist
• Peter Blake
• Roy Lichtenstein

ORIGINAL POP ART ON 1STDIBS

The Pop art movement started in the United Kingdom as a reaction, both positive and critical, to the period’s consumerism. Its goal was to put popular culture on the same level as so-called high culture.

Richard Hamilton’s 1956 collage Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? is widely believed to have kickstarted this unconventional new style.

Pop art works are distinguished by their bold imagery, bright colors and seemingly commonplace subject matter. Practitioners sought to challenge the status quo, breaking with the perceived elitism of the previously dominant Abstract Expressionism and making statements about current events. Other key characteristics of Pop art include appropriation of imagery and techniques from popular and commercial culture; use of different media and formats; repetition in imagery and iconography; incorporation of mundane objects from advertisements, cartoons and other popular media; hard edges; and ironic and witty treatment of subject matter.

Although British artists launched the movement, they were soon overshadowed by their American counterparts. Pop art is perhaps most closely identified with American Pop artist Andy Warhol, whose clever appropriation of motifs and images helped to transform the artistic style into a lifestyle. Most of the best-known American artists associated with Pop art started in commercial art (Warhol made whimsical drawings as a hobby during his early years as a commercial illustrator), a background that helped them in merging high and popular culture.

Roy Lichtenstein was another prominent Pop artist that was active in the United States. Much like Warhol, Lichtenstein drew his subjects from print media, particularly comic strips, producing paintings and sculptures characterized by primary colors, bold outlines and halftone dots, elements appropriated from commercial printing. Recontextualizing a lowbrow image by importing it into a fine-art context was a trademark of his style. Neo-Pop artists like Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami further blurred the line between art and popular culture.

Pop art rose to prominence largely through the work of a handful of men creating works that were unemotional and distanced — in other words, stereotypically masculine. However, there were many important female Pop artists, such as Rosalyn Drexler, whose significant contributions to the movement are recognized today. Best known for her work as a playwright and novelist, Drexler also created paintings and collages embodying Pop art themes and stylistic features.

Read more about the history of Pop art and the style’s famous artists, and browse the collection of original Pop art paintings, prints, photography and other works for sale on 1stDibs.