BARBARA KRUGER THINKING OF YOU. I MEAN ME. I MEAN YOU.

Even if you profess not to know American artist Barbara Kruger - it is certain that you will have seen her work or evidence of its influence. 

So iconic was her design - black and white photography with collaged words and red graphic - that it was co-opted by the very industries that she critiqued. In the current show at London's Serpentine there is a large display of all the images - both consumer and anti - that pay homage to, and plagiarise her work. 

Having worked as a designer in her late teens and early twenties, she later utilised the aesthetic of mass production and advertising as a conceptual artist, to deliver pithy, profound statements on feminism, consumerism, and the self, interwoven with philosophical concepts. Part of the so-called Pictures Generation of the 70's and 80's, Kruger was amongst other USA artists who commonly used representational imagery and references to the mass media, such as Richard Prince, Sherrie Levine, Cindy Sherman etc. 

This show at the Serpentine Gallery is Kruger's first institutional exhibition in London in twenty years, and it seems like a particularly important time to question what (if anything) has changed in relation to women's rights, propaganda and consumerism, since these works were made, 35 years ago.

The exhibition is FREE and on until the 17th March 2024. We urge you to visit.  

Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. (Installation view, 1 February – 17 March 2024, Serpentine South) Photo: George Darrell

All  images credited: Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. (Installation view, 1 February – 17 March 2024, Serpentine South) Photo: George Darrell