On Tuesday, April 12, 2022, Joseph Gallivan interviews Rebecca Morse about “Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You.” Morse is Curator in the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department at LACMA, and co-curator of this Barbara Kruger show, which is on now and runs through July 17, 2022. Morse talks about Kruger updating her work, the status of language in word art, and how to install a room-sized vinyl letter piece. This interview was recorded on Zoom video conferencing software on April 5, 2022.
From the press release:
https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/barbara-kruger
Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. is a major exhibition devoted to the work of Barbara Kruger, one of the most significant and visible artists of our time. Spanning four decades, this exhibition is the largest and most comprehensive presentation of Kruger’s work in 20 years; it spans her single-channel videos from the 1980s to digital productions of the last two decades, and includes large-scale vinyl room wraps, multichannel video installations, and audio soundscapes throughout LACMA’s campus. As an active consumer and vigilant viewer of popular culture, Kruger grapples with the accelerated ways pictures and words instantaneously flow through media. How they are simultaneously played and re-played informs her most recent video works, which are an exhibition highlight. Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. is a visually compelling gathering of groundbreaking artwork that is resonant, courageous, and crucial.
Mar 20–Jul 17, 2022
BCAM, Level 2
Today's hours: 11 am–6 pm
Morse also worked on the show book:
“Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You” Five decades of iconic and incisive art from Barbara Kruger
Since the mid-1970s, Barbara Kruger (born 1945) has been interrogating the hierarchies of power and control in works that often combine visual and written language. In her singular graphic style, Kruger probes aspects of identity, desire and consumerism that are embedded in our everyday lives.
This volume traces her continuously evolving practice to reveal how she adapts her work in accordance with the moment, site and context. The book features a range of striking images—from her analogue paste-ups of the 1980s to digital productions of the last two decades, including new works produced on the occasion of the exhibition. Also featured are singular works in vinyl, her large-scale room wraps, multichannel videos, site-specific installations and commissioned works.
The book also showcases how Kruger’s site-specific works have been re-conceived for each venue, and includes a section of reprinted texts selected by the artist.
Renowned for her use of direct address and her engagement with contemporary culture, Kruger is one of the most incisive and courageous artists working today. This volume explores how her pictures and words remain urgently resonant in a rapidly changing world.
Foreword by Michael Govan, Glenn D. Lowry, and James Rondeau, with an essay by Zoé Whitley.
Edited with text by Peter Eleey, Robyn Farrell, Michael Govan, Rebecca Morse, James Rondeau.
Time Out’s Michael Juliano https://www.timeout.com/profile/michael-juliano
Her works are in just about every contemporary collection in town and her bold Futura captions have been endlessly ripped off. But LACMA has put together a proper exhibition of the influential artist with “Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You.”
The videos and large-scale vinyl wraps span four decades, while the audio soundscapes extend across the museum campus. It’s presented like a retrospective, albeit thematically instead of chronologically, but at the same time it’s introspective: Kruger has updated some of her recognizable works from the ’80s into animated videos, and an into gallery highlights the many T-shirts and memes that’ve appropriated her white-on-red captions.
Kruger’s works comment on consumerism, politics, power, identity and feminism in remarkably direct ways: Picturing “Greatness” points out how most of LACMA’s celebrated artists are white men, Untitled (Forever) fills an entire room with a black-and-white Virginia Woolf excerpt that begins with a very large “YOU,” while the cheeky Untitled (Selfie) asks visitors to love or hate themselves as voyeurs watch from elsewhere in the museum.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
5905 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles
90036
Price:
Included in museum admission ($20)
Opening hours:
Mon, Tue, Thu 11am–6 pm; Fri 11 am–8 pm; Sat, Sun 10am–7 pm; closed Wed
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Joseph Gallivan has been a reporter since 1990. He has covered music for the London Independent, Technology for the New York Post, and arts and culture for the Portland Tribune, where he is currently a Feature Writer. He is the author of two novels, "Oi, Ref!" and "England All Over" which are available on Amazon.com
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