Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger was born 1945 in Newark, New Jersey. She was educated at Syracuse University in the school of visual arts, and later went to study at Parsons School of Design.

She started working at Mademoiselle Magazine and was quickly promoted to lead designer, and went on afterward to work for several art magazine publications.


Kruger is best known for layering thought provoking text over consumer images, such as magazine ads. She juxtaposes text that conflict with the message or purpose that the ads themselves may have. Her text plays with feminism, classicism, consumerism, and questions desire. Her trademark is to place white text over a red background. 


She continues to work as a designer, and has taught at several colleges throughout the country.

I was actually drawn to her work because of a parody of it. One of my good friends and I love the Golden Girls, so I was drawn to that image. After looking further into her work, I liked the social commentary Kruger brings up.