Paste It Up

“Our Prices are Insane!” is diagonally pasted across an image of a bloodied Frankenstein while a photograph of a man painted as a puppet sits beneath the text declaring him, “Our Leader”.  These are just two of the affecting pieces acclaimed American artist Barbara Kruger has featured in her current exhibition at Sprüth Magers gallery. The exhibition is entitled Paste Up in reference to the simplistic way in which Kruger glues on her Futura Bold-shaped text to the 11x13 black and white images. The exhibition takes up just two average sized white-washed rooms and features a humble selection of her early work that differs greatly from the overbearing installations she has produced in more recent years.

Paste Up centres around Kruger’s distaste for late capitalist consumerism and the power of sharp-phrases and selected imagery within our mass politicized world. Walking around the gallery the pieces range from being terrifying versions of the adverts we see daily on billboards and buses to quietly beautiful images paired with important questions. For example, a blurred image of a woman’s face protrudes beneath the question, “Who is free to chose?”. Many critics would refer to Kruger’s work as pure pop art but unlike the somewhat shallow pieces on show at the Tate Modern’s current exhibition, Pop Life, this work does not rely on being forcefully ironic. The exhibition has a much more intelligent and poignant take on our money-hungry world that does not rely on celebrity friends or bright colours, but focuses on the simplicity and power of combining word and image.

Kruger’s clever eye for coupling pithy phrases with striking photographs does not fail to highlight the important relationship between the two mediums, and their effect on one another. The exhibition leaves one pondering the new meanings that are created when two types of communication come together in a single work of art, and to question the powerful effect of mass media and it’s commercial ties.  

On now until the 23rd January 2010 at Sprüth Magers Gallery, 7A Grafton Street, London, W1S 4EJ