SEOUL, South Korea, June 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Amorepacific Museum of Art is pleased to present world-renowned contemporary artist Barbara Kruger's first solo exhibition "BARBARA KRUGER: FOREVER" in Asia. The exhibition will be held from June 27 to December 29 at the Amorepacific Museum of Art located in Yongsan, Seoul.
The Amorepacific Museum of Art planned this exhibition in celebration of its first anniversary of opening in Yongsan. The show will feature all the major works of Kruger since the 1980s until recently. This is a great chance to experience the true colors of the artist who has been working on various forms of art for over 40 years while sticking to a consistent and original style and pattern.
Barbara Kruger (1945-) is an American conceptual artist well known for her works that apply advertising techniques in juxtaposing images and texts. Through eye-catching symbolic fonts and concise yet intense messages, she has critically conveyed power, desire, consumerism, gender and class issues in mass media and mechanisms of contemporary society. Her works raise questions on the framework of thoughts that build the foundation of our way of thinking, such as universal notion, belief or stereotype, enabling the viewers to think independently.
This exhibition will feature 44 works that display Kruger's oeuvre. They include various forms of her works such as large-scale installations and visuals. The artist will unveil her first Hangeul piece for the first time in the world at the exhibition - Untitled (충분하면만족하라) (2019). Untitled (Forever) (2017, owned by the Amorepacific Museum of Art), the work that represents this exhibition, is specially redesigned by the artist for the Amorepacific Museum of Art. There are also 16 pieces of the early collage series of the 1980s such as Your body is a battleground and We don't need another hero.
Overview
[Introduction of main exhibits]
1. Untitled (Plenty should be enough), 2018, Digital print on vinyl wallpaper, 600 x 2,170 cm
2. Untitled (충분하면만족하라), 2019, Digital print on vinyl wallpaper, 600 x 2,170 cm
"Plenty should be enough" is a recurring phrase in Barbara Kruger's works. By including the sentence in her artistic practice, she turns a critical eye toward consumerism and desire. In this work, executed and installed in both English and Korean, the power of words can be found not only in meaning but also in size, with the words taking the entire wall. Kruger makes use of architecture so that reading, an act generally considered still and personal, becomes a much more physical experience.
3. Untitled (Forever), 2017, Digital print on vinyl wallpaper, dimensions variable (570 x 2,870 x 1,830 cm)
The vinyl wallpaper Untitled (FOREVER) (2017), especially re-designed by the artist for Amorepacific Museum of Art will wrap one of the biggest rooms in the museum from floor to ceiling, enveloping viewers in a disorienting but though-provoking environment. The site-specific work taps into Kruger's long-standing interest in architecture and the expanding scale of her installations.
4. Untitled (The_latest_version_of_the_truth), 2018, Digital print on vinyl, 226.1 x 173cm
The most recent work in the show is the vinyl print Untitled (The latest version of the truth) (2018) whose pointed address of the manufacturing of facts is particularly timely in the current sociopolitical climate.
[About Barbara Kruger]
Born & Place
1945 Born in Newark, New Jersey, USA
Present Lives in New York City and Los Angeles, California, USA
Education
1966 Parsons School of Design, New York City, New York, USA
1965 Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA
Selected Awards and Grants
2005 The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, 51st Venice Biennale
1983-84 National Endowment for the Arts Grant
1976-77 Creative Artists Service Program Grant
Barbara Kruger, one of the most influential contemporary artists, communicated with the world in her unique visual language of juxtaposing black and white photographs with bold type. She is currently based in Los Angeles and New York in the United States.
Kruger was born to a middle-class family in Newark, New Jersey, and studied in Syracuse University in New York. A year later, she relocated to Parson's School of Design, which was when she started her life in New York, studying under Diane Arbus and Marvin Israel. She soon after finds work at Conde Nast Publications, working as a designer for Mademoiselle, and is promoted to Head Designer the following year. She later becomes in charge of editing photographs in magazines House and Garden, and Aperture. 10 years of her experience as a designer became the groundwork in creating her unique visual language.
Kruger started her artistic career around 1969, but the hallmark black and white image framed in red, overlaid with bold text became prominent in 1981. Images found in old magazines and photograph catalogues are edited, then implicative and often provocative texts are layered on top to address issues such as power and control, mass media and capitalism, distortion of truth and gender role stereotypes. Slogans that are instantly comprehensible such as "I shop therefore I am", and "Your body is a battleground" gave rise to countless parodies and homages, making this the trademark "Kruger style".
Because of her use of language, and her billboard, and advertisement style, Kruger has often been grouped with postmodern feminist artists such as Jenny Holzer, Sherrie Levine, Martha Rosler, and Cindy Sherman. However, her work was displayed not only in prominent art museums and galleries, but also on billboards, bus cards, magazines, newspapers, posters, parks, and train station platforms. As such, her work with various media and close communication with the public allowed her to establish herself as an unparalleled artist. She was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005. In 2020 her work will also be presented at the Art Institute of Chicago.
[Overview of the Amorepacific Museum of Art]
The Amorepacific Museum of Art started with a private collection of crafts and ceramics related to women, cosmetics and tea by the founder and former Chairman Suh Sungwhan (1924-2003) in order to preserve and promote Korean traditions. Established in 1979 as the Pacific Museum, it was renamed as the Amorepacific Museum of Art (APMA) in 2009. The museum embraces antiques and contemporary art of both the East and the West, and it has been contributing to the development of art culture such as exhibitions, research, publications, and more.
The Amorepacific Museum of Art newly opened in 2018 at the Amorepacific headquarters located in Yongsan, Seoul. The new museum is open to everyone as a plaza for the museum, artists and visitors to communicate in the common language of 'art' for humanity. You can find the lobby and gift shop on the first floor, as well as exhibition space 'APMA Cabinet' and library of exhibition catalogs of the world (apLAP). The underground exhibition hall features all kinds of exhibitions and stories that embrace the antiques and contemporary art of Korea as well as art from around the world.
The Amorepacific headquarters is designed by world-renowned British architect David Chipperfield. He intended to express the beauty of singularity that is unique to Amorepacific in the heart of the city surrounded by buildings. The headquarters is not comprised of multiple buildings but is a single building with a significant volume that has a graceful and simple shape. It resembles the beauty of a white porcelain moon jar that has an understated elegance without elaborate techniques, creating an enriched, comfortable mood. Visitors will experience various exhibitions in which artworks in Korea and overseas meet at the Amorepacific Museum of Art.
The Amorepacific Museum of Art contributes to the development of art culture in both Korea and the world. It will continue to carry out a series of activities to study and support art by introducing the traditional and contemporary art of Korea to the world as well as the new trends of global art.
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