Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger was born on January 26, 1945, in a middle-class family, in New Jersey. Her father was a chemical technician while her mother worked as a legal secretary. She was an only child and had a typical childhood growing up in a middle-class neighborhood.

She went to the Weequahic High School in Newark. She was artistically inclined from a young age and decided to pursue her higher education in art and design.

She enrolled at the Syracuse University as an undergraduate where she studied art and design. After spending a year at the University she moved to New York City to take advanced art and design classes at the Parsons School of Design. Her instructors at the college included the American photographer Diane Arbus and graphic designer Marvin Israel.

Even though she was very enthusiastic about the course when she joined, she started becoming disillusioned with art school. Her mentor Israel encouraged her to prepare a professional portfolio which rekindled her interest in the subject.

During the initial stages of her training she focused on architectural photography, painting, craft, and erotic imagery.

She joined Conde Nast Publications in 1966 after leaving school. With her talent, creativity and determination she easily found work in a number of publications.

She worked as a graphic designer, art director, and picture editor in the art departments of publications like ‘House and Garden’ and ‘Aperture’. Simultaneously, she also undertook freelancing work designing book jackets and editing pictures for other publications.

She was appointed as an entry-level designer by ‘Mademoiselle’ magazine. Her seniors were much impressed with the young woman’s work and she was promoted to the role of a lead designer within a year of her joining.

She was just 22 and already enjoying the success many graphic designers aim for, but she was not satisfied. She desired to venture into a career in art as she felt that designing work did not provide her the creative outlet she craved.

She got a big break in 1973. During her early career as a visual artist she used to crochet, sew and create vivid erotically suggestive objects using beads, sequins, feathers and ribbons. Curator Marcia Tucker displayed some of these artworks in the 1973 Whitney Biennial.

Her poster ‘Untitled (Your Body Is a Battleground)’ is considered one of her iconic works. Portraying a woman’s face bisected into positive and negative photographic reproductions overlaid with the text “Your Body Is a Battleground”, it was used during the 1989 Women’s March on Washington in support of legal abortion.