Barbara Kruger is an American Conceptual artist who was born on January 26th, 1945, in Newark, New Jersey. She is known for her combination of text and image that contains a feminist style. Her work shows different stereotypes and behaviors of consumerism involving words over mass media pictures. She is inspired by Alexander Rodechenko (a Constructivist). For a while, she worked as a graphic designer and an art director after studying at Syracuse University and Parsons School of Design during the 1960s. Her works are located in The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and more. She currently lives and works between New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA.
The piece below is one of Barbara Kruger’s works. It shows a baby’s hand reaching out for an adult’s hand and grabbing their finger. The text that was put with this picture says “Your every wish is our command.” When I saw this, my first thought was that it was clever. Babies are too young and little to do anything for themselves, so adults have to be responsible and take care of them and keep them happy and healthy. When a baby starts crying, the adult becomes concerned and (hopefully) jumps in to help out to see what’s going on. The text chosen for this specific picture definitely goes along with it well.