BARBARA KRUGER

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

Kruger’s signature exhibition graphic greets you on both the north and south walls outside the Regenstein Hall galleries. The square image consists of three horizontal rectangles in black, white, and black and the title THINKING OF YOU. I MEAN ME. I MEAN YOU., divided in three parts and opposing colors of each space. Green X’s cross out the first YOU and ME. The following title wall text reads below:

For more than forty years, Barbara Kruger (American, b. 1945) has been a consistent, critical observer of the ways that images circulate through culture. Overlaying images and iconography from mass-media photographs with provocative language, the artist uses direct address to undermine and expose the power dynamics of identity, desire, and consumer habits. As shrinking attention spans collide with the voyeurism and narcissism that define contemporary life, her immersive installations and widely circulated pictures and words are imbued with humor, vigilance, and empathy—inviting us to reconsider how we relate to one another.

THINKING OF YOU. I MEAN ME. I MEAN YOU. (lines cross out the first “YOU” and “ME”) encompasses the full breadth of Kruger’s career—from early and rarely seen “pasteups” (created with an analog technique she learned as a magazine designer) to digital productions of the last two decades—and includes works on vinyl, site-specific installations, animations, and multichannel video installations. The exhibition is not, however, a retrospective. Challenging notions of career building and a strict chronology, Kruger has reenvisioned the retrospective itself by rethinking, remaking, and replaying her work in the present. Designed in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition interrogates the specific cultural context of the Art Institute of Chicago as her work transcends the exhibition galleries, occupying the museum’s public spaces and the city beyond.

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

The entrance to the exhibition is framed by two columns wrapped with a white-to-red gradient vinyl with the artist’s name running from top to bottom. The column on the left reads “BARBARA” and the right column reads “KRUGER.” Both feature white type set against a red gradient background. Between the columns and 30 feet further into the Narthex gallery is an 11-foot-tall freestanding LED wall. It plays a video that features a gray hand holding a red placard with white text that reads, I SHOP therefore I AM. The other three sides of this freestanding wall are wrapped in printed vinyl wallpaper. The narrow left side of the wall reads “NEED IT,” and the narrow right side reads, “WANT IT,” both in white, vertical text running top to bottom against a white-to-red gradient background. The reverse side of the wall repeats the image of the gray hand, this time holding a placard covered in a grid of images found online of people wearing Kruger style T-shirts. The same gray hand repeats along the length of the Narthex walls, three times on both sides of the long, narrow arcade that leads to the main galleries of the exhibition. The six hands hold placards featuring Google-sourced images that resemble the artist’s style but are not her own works.

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

From the Narthex the you enter Untitled (Forever), a fully immersive installation where Kruger’s black-and-white text wraps all four walls and floor. This room is 70 feet wide and 30 feet deep.

Upon entering this room, the wall to the left depicts a magnifying glass that enlarges and distorts a text. The word “YOU” fills over half of the circular magnifying glass and the remaining text reads, YOU ARE HERE, LOOKING THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, DARKLY. SEEING THE UNSEEN, THE INVISIBLE, THE BARLEY THERE. YOU. WHOEVER YOU ARE. WHEREVER YOU ARE. ETCHED IN MEMORY. UNTIL YOU, THE LOOKER, IS GONE. UNSEEN. NO MORE. YOU TOO.
West Wall:
Upon entering this room, the wall to the right depicts a magnifying glass that enlarges and distorts a text. The word “YOU” fills over half of the circular magnifying glass, and the following quote by Virginia Woolf reads, YOU KNOW THAT WOMEN HAVE SERVED ALL THESE CENTURIES AS LOOKING GLASSES POSSESSING THE MAGIC AND DELICIOUS POWER OF REFLECTING THE FIGURE OF A MAN AT TWICE ITS NATURAL SIZE.
South wall:
Upon entering this room, the wall opposite you features horizontal bands that span the long wall, alternating white type on a black background and black type on a white background. The text reads, WAR TIME, WAR CRIME, WAR GAME, GANG WAR, CIVIL WAR, HOLY WAR, CLASS WAR, BIDDING WAR, TRADE WAR, COLD WAR, RACE WAR, WORLD WAR, WAR FOR PEACE, WAR WITHOUT END, WAR FOR A WORLD WITHOUT WOMEN, WAR FOR ME TO BECOME YOU.

North wall:
Upon entering this room, the long wall behind you features horizontal bands of alternating white type on a black background and black type on a white background. The text reads, IN THE END, SOMETHING ELSE BEGINS, IN THE END, YOU’VE HAD YOUR CHANCE, IN THE END, YOU WIN OR YOU CAN LOSE, IN THE END, HISTORY HAPPENS, IN THE END, NOTHING MATTERS, IN THE END, ALL IS FOR GOTTEN, IN THE END, ALL IS FOR GIVEN, IN THE END, ALL LIES FOREVER RULE, IN THE END, ALL HOPE IS LOST, IN THE END, ALL ANGER NEVER FADES, IN THE END, ALL WILL MEAN ZERO, IN THE END, ALL WILL DISAPPEAR.

Five doors are spaced along this long wall: three in the middle that lead from the Narthex gallery and two that lead into the projection galleries on either side. This vinyl covers the entire wall, and the doors split up the last three words of the lower bands in such a way that no letters are lost.
Floor:
Horizontal bands alternating white type on a black background and black type on a white background feature this quote by George Orwell: IF YOU WANT A PICTURE OF THE FUTURE, IMAGINE A BOOK STAMPING ON A HUMAN FACE, FOREVER.

The walls of this gallery are hung salon style with twenty-three black-and-white and two color photographs with white mats and black frames. The photographs vary in size—from 4 ½ by 3 ⅞ inches to 20 by 23 ¾ inches—and time period, from 1905 to 2003. These are works in the Art Institute’s collection by other artists. A white freestanding wall in the center of the room features black sentence-case text in a serif font that differs from the surrounding galleries. The front and back of the wall reads, from top to bottom:

Picturing “Greatness”
The pictures that line the walls of this room are photographs of famous artists. Though many of these images exude a kind of well-tailored gentility, others feature the artist as a star-crossed Houdini with a beret on, a kooky middleman between God and the public. Vibrating with inspiration, yet impeccably well behaved, visceral yet oozing with all manner of refinement, almost all are male and almost all are white. These images of artistic “greatness” are from the collection of this museum. But as this gathering suggests, we are finally seeing the incremental inclusion of women and people of color into the mix: a reflection of the diverse races, genders, and”

(Here the text breaks after “and,” which is followed by an arrow pointing to the left. The sentence continues on the reverse side of the wall at the top.)

classes that define themselves as artists. As we tend to become who we are through a dense crush of allowances and denials, inclusions and absences, we can begin to see how approval is accorded through the languages of “greatness”, that heady brew concocted with a slice of visual pleasure, a pinch of connoisseurship, a mention of myth, and a dollop of money. But these images can also suggest how we are seduced into the world of appearances, into a pose of who we are and who we aren’t. They can show us how vocation is ambushed by cliché and snapped into stereotype by the camera, and how photography freezes moments, creates prominence and makes history.
—Barbara Kruger

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

The exhibition includes four projection spaces located at each corner of Regenstein Hall. Untitled (Artforum) and Untitled (The work is about …) are located near the entrance and exit of the exhibition, respectively. The Globe Shrinks and Untitled (No Comment) are located at opposite ends of the exhibition space.

Untitled (Artforum) is a two-channel video projection without sound that animates Kruger’s collaboration for the summer 2016 cover of Artforum. In it she annotates then editor Michelle Kuo’s brief for the issue, which focused on art and identity. The work projects onto two adjoined walls, suggesting an open book. Black serif type on a white background fills the projection space on the left and then right wall, and then Kruger’s edits appear in sans-serif red type along the margins of each simulated page.

Untitled (The work is about …) is a single-channel projection with no sound. The video is projected floor to ceiling and wall to wall and features a scrolling list of descriptors in white type relating to art practices. The line “The work is about” repeats in red throughout.

The Globe Shrinks is a 12-minute-and-43-second four-channel video installation with sound that fills the gallery walls from edge to edge. The work juxtaposes cultural theorist Homi K. Bhabha’s declaration that “the globe shrinks for those who own it” with vignettes projected on four walls, including video of a stand-up comedian, a road-rage incident, prayer gatherings, and written quips including “SHOVE IT,” “DOUBT IT,” and “BELIEVE IT.” The installation oscillates between opposing projections, utilizing shot/reverse shot editing and episodic scenarios that punctuate both live action and word interplay on the various screens. Benches designed by the artist are placed in the center and corners of the space.

Untitled (No Comment) is a nine-and-a-half-minute video with sound. The installation comprises a floor-to-ceiling single-channel projection that runs for seven minutes and two other screens that are activated for sixteen seconds of the video. As the work unfolds it mimics the path of someone aimlessly surfing the web, presenting clips of things such as scrolling type set to a soundtrack of various speech patterns and a cat lip-synching the powerful hook of the Lady Gaga song “Shallow,” as well as photos of polarizing political figures. Also included are texts and images from past and present works by Kruger, many of which relate to pieces included in the exhibition, as well as Instagram posts of people posing in front of her work.

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

This section presents a series of new work Kruger produced on the occasion of this exhibition. The artist refers to this body of work as replays, a term that describes her process of animating static works she created in the 1980s and injecting them with contemporary wordplay. Each video plays on its own large LED screen, ranging in size from 11 ½ by 11 ½ feet to 6 ½ by 13 feet. Untitled (I shop therefore I am) and Untitled (Your body is a battleground) begin with a static view of the original images: one shows a hand holding a red placard with white text that reads, “I shop therefore I am,” and the other depicts a bisected portrait of a female face, one half with half-positive exposure and the other with half-negative. The face is overlaid with white type on a red rectangle that reads, “Your body is a battleground.” Over the course of the videos, the images collapse into puzzle pieces and come together again. Once re-formed, the iconic images and texts shift to a new series of phrases reflecting the present moment. Untitled (Our Leader), Untitled (Remember me), and Untitled (Admit nothing/Blame everyone/Be bitter) function in a similar way, in that Kruger disrupts the original images using animation and changing phrases.

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

In this series of videos featuring white type on red backgrounds, Pledge, Will, and Vow run through, respectively, the traditional language of a final will and testament, marriage vows, and the Pledge of Allegiance. Once again, the new works animate old ones but in this case deconstruct and disrupt familiar phrasing with jarring adjustments such as, “I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND TO THE REPUBLIC/RESENTMENT/RETRENCHMENT/RESILIENCE/RESISTANCE/REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS/ FALLS/FAILS/SURVIVES/STANDS… .”

The three flat-screen works unfold in the same gallery: first Pledge plays, then Vows, then Will, and finally all three rewind together. Also installed in this space is Kruger’s Untitled (Our people), a digital print on vinyl featuring white type against a red background. It reads, OUR PEOPLE ARE BETTER THAN YOUR PEOPLE. MORE INTELLIGENT, MORE POWERFUL, MORE BEAUTIFUL, AND CLEANER. WE ARE GOOD AND YOU ARE EVIL. GOD IS ON OUR SIDE. OUR SHIT DOESN’T STINK AND WE INVENTED EVERYTHING.

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

Kruger’s Untitled (Selfie) comprises a full-room installation with technical components located outside of Regenstein Hall. The ancillary monitors are described later. Two walls of the gallery are wrapped with green, white, and black text. The west wall reads, I HATE MYSELF AND YOU LOVE ME FOR IT, and across from it, the east wall reads, I LOVE MYSELF AND YOU HATE ME FOR IT. The message “Please do not enter unless you consent to be pictured while picturing. A phone/camera is needed for entry. Thanks.” is posted in Kruger’s black sans-serif type above the entry door to the gallery. Two surveillance cameras are installed at opposite corners of the space.

Description of ancillary monitors: Four flat-screen monitors measuring about 4 3/16 by 6 13/16 by 2 inches are located at the Michigan Avenue entrance, in Griffin Court, in Ryan Education Center, and on the second floor of the Modern Wing. These monitors broadcast activity captured in the Untitled (Selfie) gallery in Regenstein Hall.

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

The earliest examples of Kruger’s work in the exhibition are her “pasteups,” which demonstrate the analog cut-and-paste aesthetic ubiquitous to commercial design in the 1980s and 1990s and reveal her photomechanical method for producing the iconic work she is known for today. Kruger’s pre-digital works—as she now calls them—tackle monumental topics like gender, class, race, economy, history, desire, voyeurism, and fact vs. fiction on a small scale. Black-and-white images of a the profile of a female statue, an erupting volcano, two girls flexing their muscles, demolished houses, and a leopard cub are paired with the following phrases: “YOUR GAZE HITS THE SIDE OF MY FACE, YOUR MANIAS BECOME SCIENCE, WE DON’T NEED ANOTHER HERO, MONEY TALKS, MAKE MY DAY,” among other examples.

Photographic silkscreen and digital prints on vinyl present over 30 years of Kruger’s production. The vinyl installations are situated across various galleries and, in some cases, appear next to time-based-media works.
Gallery 7:
Three vinyl works are installed alongside four LED “replay” video installations described earlier. Untitled (Unmaking the World) is located to the left of the gallery’s entrance. The digital print on vinyl is 143 by 103 inches and is largely dominated by the head of a grimacing man whose lower half is wrapped in barbed wire. The image is black and white and has a gray gradient background and red frame. The phrase “UNMAKING THE WORLD” appears in white type on a red rectangular across the man’s forehead. Installed on the wall to the right is the video Untitled (Our Leader), and the photographic silkscreen on vinyl Untitled (Who speaks? Who is silent?) is installed to the right of that. The vinyl work depicts a horizontal pair of slightly open metal scissors. Oriented horizontally, it measures 52 by 197 inches. The image is black-and-white, and in the upper left and lower right corners of the composition white text on red reads, WHO SPEAKS? WHO IS SILENT? The video replay Untitled (Your body is a battleground) hangs on the wall to the right. Untitled (Admit nothing/Blame everyone/Be bitter) is installed on the west wall, to the left of Untitled (It’s our pleasure to disgust you), a photographic silkscreen on vinyl. This work is 90 by 77 inches and features white type on a red background that reads, IT’S OUR PLEASURE TO DISGUST YOU. The words “PLEASURE” and “DISGUST” are larger than the rest and look emphasized across the image of a nude woman nailed to a cross and wearing a gas mask. The black background framed in red features four phrases in each corner. The small white texts read in clockwise order from top right, FORGET MORALITY, FORGET INNOCENCE, FORGET SHAME, FORGET HEROES.
Gallery 4:
This gallery presents a suite of three digital prints on vinyl with white type. Each work is installed on one of the gallery’s three walls. From left to right they read, TOO BIG TO FAIL, GREEDY SCHMUCK, MONEY IS LIKE SHIT. YOU ONLY FEEL IT WHEN IT MOVES.
Gallery 11:
This gallery features one work installed on each of the four walls and a vinyl floor covering. Upon entering you encounter in clockwise order starting on the left: Untitled (Brain), Untitled (Truth), Untitled (Heart), Untitled (Feel is something you do with your hands).

The floor is covered in red vinyl with white text that reads, The vomiting body screams “kiss me” to the shitting body that coos “smell me” to the numb body that mumbles “shock me” to the hungry body that whines “I want you inside of me” to the praying body that whispers “save me” to the dead body that is hard to dispose of.
Gallery 13:
This gallery features three works, each installed on its own wall. Together they comprise Kruger’s 2020 digital vinyl triptych Never Perfect Enough. Each work measures 132 by 98 ⅞ inches, and they appear as follows:

Never features the left profile of a woman whose hair is curled with rollers on top and with pin curls on the side. Red type and dark green arrows punctuate the green image. From left to right the text reads, EVER, AROUND, SEEN, LAND, MIND, FEAR, AGAIN, MORE, CHANGE, WAS, FORGET, BEFORE, WILL, BEEN. A red band runs across the top.

Perfect shows the back of a woman’s head. Her hair is curled with rollers on top and with pin curls below. Black type and green arrows punctuate the red image. From left to right the text reads, SCORE, COUPLE, PITCH, GAME, FACE, LIFE, PICTURE, MOMENT, STORM, TIMING, KISS, CRIME, PLACE. A red band runs across the top.

Enough presents the right profile of a woman whose hair is curled with rollers on top and with pin curls on the side. Red type and black arrows punctuate the blue image. From left to right the text reads, SEX, HATE, STUFF, NOISE, TALK, POWER, DEATH, GOSSIP, LIES, MONEY, LOVE, LAUGHTER, VANITY, FEAR, NOTHING. A red band runs across the top.

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

Even before entering the Art Institute of Chicago, you encounter the work of Barbara Kruger. The artist designed the three banners that hang in three archways outside the museum’s Michigan Avenue entrance as well as the images that populate the 14 windows of the building’s facade. The first banner reads, “THINKING OF YOU,” in white all-caps type on a black background with a green X crossing out the pronoun “YOU.” The second banner reads, “I MEAN ME,” in black all-caps type on a white background with a green X over “ME.” The third banner reads, “I MEAN YOU,” in white all-caps type on a black background. The window installations feature one word in each window. From left to right toward the museum entrance they read, PROMISE, PROPERTY, POVERTY, PROFIT, PAIN, POWER, PLEASURE. From right to left toward the museum entrance they read, DENIAL, DECEIT, DISSENT, DELIGHT, DOUBT, DISGUST, DESIRE. The white texts run vertically on white-to-black gradient backgrounds.

Elsewhere on the museum campus Kruger canvassed the wall spanning from the north corner of Michigan Avenue to the staff entrance and dock on Monroe Street. An enlarged, purple image of an eye covers a square expanse on the far left wall. The white-on-black text that follows reads from left to right, LOVE IT, SHOVE IT, PRAISE IT, DOUBT IT, SHAME IT, BLAME IT, BELIEVE IT, BUY IT. Kruger recycled familiar images from her work (the bottom of shoe, praying hands, a woman covering her face with her hands, a pair of hands performing eye surgery) and used different colors to punctuate each phrase.

As you walk further east on Monroe, you encounter another Kruger installation in the outside-facing windows of the Alsdorf Galleries that bridge the Ferguson and Rice buildings over the Metra train tracks. The all-caps text reads, “ANOTHER HOPE, ANOTHER FEAR, ANOTHER YEAR,” and it spans three sets of three windows. The word “ANOTHER” is in black type on a white background and the nouns are white type on a green background.

The Modern Wing’s west entrance, known as the “west box,” is the site of Kruger’s next work. A massive vinyl mural next to a two-story escalator features two emoji-like faces stacked on top of each other. The mural extends from the top to the bottom of the wall, spanning 50 feet high and 34 feet wide. The top frowning face is white on a green background with a grid of smaller repeating emoji faces with a variety of expressions, also drawn in white. The bottom half is the inverse, with a green smiley face on top of a white background and with a grid of smaller green emoji faces.

The windows above the main entrance to the Art Institute’s Modern Wing feature text that runs vertically. The phrases are in black-and-white, all-caps type on a white-to-black gradient background, and they are run alternately from bottom to top and top to bottom. The texts read, FIRST IS LAST, AWAKE IS ASLEEP, PRO IS CON, CRUEL IS KIND, NOW IS THEN. The texts installed in the windows facing inward read, BAD IS GOOD, UP IS DOWN, HAPPY IS SAD, RIGHT IS WRONG, TRUTH IS FICTION, ANYTHING GOES. The work covers all six vertical window panes and spans 21 feet high and 30 feet wide overall.

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

Even before entering the Art Institute of Chicago, you encounter the work of Barbara Kruger. The artist designed the three banners that hang in three archways outside the museum’s Michigan Avenue entrance as well as the images that populate the 14 windows of the building’s facade. The first banner reads, “THINKING OF YOU,” in white all-caps type on a black background with a green X crossing out the pronoun “YOU.” The second banner reads, “I MEAN ME,” in black all-caps type on a white background with a green X over “ME.” The third banner reads, “I MEAN YOU,” in white all-caps type on a black background. The window installations feature one word in each window. From left to right toward the museum entrance they read, PROMISE, PROPERTY, POVERTY, PROFIT, PAIN, POWER, PLEASURE. From right to left toward the museum entrance they read, DENIAL, DECEIT, DISSENT, DELIGHT, DOUBT, DISGUST, DESIRE. The white texts run vertically on white-to-black gradient backgrounds.

Elsewhere on the museum campus Kruger canvassed the wall spanning from the north corner of Michigan Avenue to the staff entrance and dock on Monroe Street. An enlarged, purple image of an eye covers a square expanse on the far left wall. The white-on-black text that follows reads from left to right, LOVE IT, SHOVE IT, PRAISE IT, DOUBT IT, SHAME IT, BLAME IT, BELIEVE IT, BUY IT. Kruger recycled familiar images from her work (the bottom of shoe, praying hands, a woman covering her face with her hands, a pair of hands performing eye surgery) and used different colors to punctuate each phrase.

As you walk further east on Monroe, you encounter another Kruger installation in the outside-facing windows of the Alsdorf Galleries that bridge the Ferguson and Rice buildings over the Metra train tracks. The all-caps text reads, “ANOTHER HOPE, ANOTHER FEAR, ANOTHER YEAR,” and it spans three sets of three windows. The word “ANOTHER” is in black type on a white background and the nouns are white type on a green background.

The Modern Wing’s west entrance, known as the “west box,” is the site of Kruger’s next work. A massive vinyl mural next to a two-story escalator features two emoji-like faces stacked on top of each other. The mural extends from the top to the bottom of the wall, spanning 50 feet high and 34 feet wide. The top frowning face is white on a green background with a grid of smaller repeating emoji faces with a variety of expressions, also drawn in white. The bottom half is the inverse, with a green smiley face on top of a white background and with a grid of smaller green emoji faces.

The windows above the main entrance to the Art Institute’s Modern Wing feature text that runs vertically. The phrases are in black-and-white, all-caps type on a white-to-black gradient background, and they are run alternately from bottom to top and top to bottom. The texts read, FIRST IS LAST, AWAKE IS ASLEEP, PRO IS CON, CRUEL IS KIND, NOW IS THEN. The texts installed in the windows facing inward read, BAD IS GOOD, UP IS DOWN, HAPPY IS SAD, RIGHT IS WRONG, TRUTH IS FICTION, ANYTHING GOES. The work covers all six vertical window panes and spans 21 feet high and 30 feet wide overall.

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

Even before entering the Art Institute of Chicago, you encounter the work of Barbara Kruger. The artist designed the three banners that hang in three archways outside the museum’s Michigan Avenue entrance as well as the images that populate the 14 windows of the building’s facade. The first banner reads, “THINKING OF YOU,” in white all-caps type on a black background with a green X crossing out the pronoun “YOU.” The second banner reads, “I MEAN ME,” in black all-caps type on a white background with a green X over “ME.” The third banner reads, “I MEAN YOU,” in white all-caps type on a black background. The window installations feature one word in each window. From left to right toward the museum entrance they read, PROMISE, PROPERTY, POVERTY, PROFIT, PAIN, POWER, PLEASURE. From right to left toward the museum entrance they read, DENIAL, DECEIT, DISSENT, DELIGHT, DOUBT, DISGUST, DESIRE. The white texts run vertically on white-to-black gradient backgrounds.

Elsewhere on the museum campus Kruger canvassed the wall spanning from the north corner of Michigan Avenue to the staff entrance and dock on Monroe Street. An enlarged, purple image of an eye covers a square expanse on the far left wall. The white-on-black text that follows reads from left to right, LOVE IT, SHOVE IT, PRAISE IT, DOUBT IT, SHAME IT, BLAME IT, BELIEVE IT, BUY IT. Kruger recycled familiar images from her work (the bottom of shoe, praying hands, a woman covering her face with her hands, a pair of hands performing eye surgery) and used different colors to punctuate each phrase.

As you walk further east on Monroe, you encounter another Kruger installation in the outside-facing windows of the Alsdorf Galleries that bridge the Ferguson and Rice buildings over the Metra train tracks. The all-caps text reads, “ANOTHER HOPE, ANOTHER FEAR, ANOTHER YEAR,” and it spans three sets of three windows. The word “ANOTHER” is in black type on a white background and the nouns are white type on a green background.

The Modern Wing’s west entrance, known as the “west box,” is the site of Kruger’s next work. A massive vinyl mural next to a two-story escalator features two emoji-like faces stacked on top of each other. The mural extends from the top to the bottom of the wall, spanning 50 feet high and 34 feet wide. The top frowning face is white on a green background with a grid of smaller repeating emoji faces with a variety of expressions, also drawn in white. The bottom half is the inverse, with a green smiley face on top of a white background and with a grid of smaller green emoji faces.

The windows above the main entrance to the Art Institute’s Modern Wing feature text that runs vertically. The phrases are in black-and-white, all-caps type on a white-to-black gradient background, and they are run alternately from bottom to top and top to bottom. The texts read, FIRST IS LAST, AWAKE IS ASLEEP, PRO IS CON, CRUEL IS KIND, NOW IS THEN. The texts installed in the windows facing inward read, BAD IS GOOD, UP IS DOWN, HAPPY IS SAD, RIGHT IS WRONG, TRUTH IS FICTION, ANYTHING GOES. The work covers all six vertical window panes and spans 21 feet high and 30 feet wide overall.

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

Even before entering the Art Institute of Chicago, you encounter the work of Barbara Kruger. The artist designed the three banners that hang in three archways outside the museum’s Michigan Avenue entrance as well as the images that populate the 14 windows of the building’s facade. The first banner reads, “THINKING OF YOU,” in white all-caps type on a black background with a green X crossing out the pronoun “YOU.” The second banner reads, “I MEAN ME,” in black all-caps type on a white background with a green X over “ME.” The third banner reads, “I MEAN YOU,” in white all-caps type on a black background. The window installations feature one word in each window. From left to right toward the museum entrance they read, PROMISE, PROPERTY, POVERTY, PROFIT, PAIN, POWER, PLEASURE. From right to left toward the museum entrance they read, DENIAL, DECEIT, DISSENT, DELIGHT, DOUBT, DISGUST, DESIRE. The white texts run vertically on white-to-black gradient backgrounds.

Elsewhere on the museum campus Kruger canvassed the wall spanning from the north corner of Michigan Avenue to the staff entrance and dock on Monroe Street. An enlarged, purple image of an eye covers a square expanse on the far left wall. The white-on-black text that follows reads from left to right, LOVE IT, SHOVE IT, PRAISE IT, DOUBT IT, SHAME IT, BLAME IT, BELIEVE IT, BUY IT. Kruger recycled familiar images from her work (the bottom of shoe, praying hands, a woman covering her face with her hands, a pair of hands performing eye surgery) and used different colors to punctuate each phrase.

As you walk further east on Monroe, you encounter another Kruger installation in the outside-facing windows of the Alsdorf Galleries that bridge the Ferguson and Rice buildings over the Metra train tracks. The all-caps text reads, “ANOTHER HOPE, ANOTHER FEAR, ANOTHER YEAR,” and it spans three sets of three windows. The word “ANOTHER” is in black type on a white background and the nouns are white type on a green background.

The Modern Wing’s west entrance, known as the “west box,” is the site of Kruger’s next work. A massive vinyl mural next to a two-story escalator features two emoji-like faces stacked on top of each other. The mural extends from the top to the bottom of the wall, spanning 50 feet high and 34 feet wide. The top frowning face is white on a green background with a grid of smaller repeating emoji faces with a variety of expressions, also drawn in white. The bottom half is the inverse, with a green smiley face on top of a white background and with a grid of smaller green emoji faces.

The windows above the main entrance to the Art Institute’s Modern Wing feature text that runs vertically. The phrases are in black-and-white, all-caps type on a white-to-black gradient background, and they are run alternately from bottom to top and top to bottom. The texts read, FIRST IS LAST, AWAKE IS ASLEEP, PRO IS CON, CRUEL IS KIND, NOW IS THEN. The texts installed in the windows facing inward read, BAD IS GOOD, UP IS DOWN, HAPPY IS SAD, RIGHT IS WRONG, TRUTH IS FICTION, ANYTHING GOES. The work covers all six vertical window panes and spans 21 feet high and 30 feet wide overall.

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

Kruger’s Griffin Court installation covers the floor with a printed vinyl that starts where visitors scan their entrance tickets and extends to the glass doors at the opposite end of the court, measuring 30 feet wide to both side walls and 200 feet long. This installation features the phrase “BLIND IDEALISM IS REACTIONARY SCARY DEADLY,” with green X’s crossing out “REACTIONARY” and “SCARY.” Each word in the phrase alternates between white type on a black background and black type on a white background,

The label for Untitled (Blind Idealism) reads:

Kruger has reprised the work Untitled (Blind Idealism), adapted from the prose of psychiatrist and political philosopher Frantz Fanon (1925 to 1961). Modifying Fanon’s original “Blind idealism is reactionary,” Kruger’s additional adjectives address the enduring necessity of responding to one’s context—environmental, political, and societal. The artist’s site for this urgent message transfers it from the textual page to a physical, institutional space. Like many of Kruger’s text works, this too has appeared in many other public forums.

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

An installation completely covers the south wall of the Modern Wing’s Balcony Café, located above Griffin Court on the second floor of the building. In alternating bands of black-and-white text and white-and-black backgrounds, the work reads from top to bottom, “TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, TODAY IS THE LAST DAY OF ENDLESS STRIFE, TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE LOSS OF LIGHT, TODAY IS THE LAST PLAY OF THE GAME OF LIFE, TODAY IS THE FIRST TIME YOU FIGHT THE FRIGHT,
TODAY IS THE FIRST TRY AT EATING RIGHT.”

The bottom band includes 11 green-and-white smiley faces making various expressions, including devilish, sad, flirty, and bored.

This work is presented in two different areas of the museum, each on a CRT monitor atop a gray pedestal. One is located across from the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries and below the Grand Staircase, and the other is located on a pedestal among the Greek and Roman statues in the Jaharis galleries just outside of the Rice Building.

In 1996 Kruger explored televised mass communication with her Public Service Announcement (PSA) project, which she developed during a residency in the Film/Video Studio Program at the Wexner Center at the University of Ohio in Columbus. Kruger recalls that experience as “incredibly generative … a turning point in my practice.” Shot by documentary filmmaker Tom Hayes using the studio’s Aaton 16mm film camera, the five 30-second vignettes were written and directed by the artist and shot in a single day. The PSA spots debuted on Columbus Public Television in 1996. The vignettes are black and white with a quick transition to color at the end of each scene. They feature one couple, individuals, and children in various scenarios that close with the following texts:

Vignette 1:
Don’t torture
Don’t hate
Don’t scream
Let it go
It’s cool to be kind. Live and let live.

Vignette 2:
Empathy can change the world.
It’s cool to be kind. Live and let live.
Vignette 3:
Fear and hate make you small, bitter, and mean.
It’s cool to be kind. Live and let live.
Vignette 4:
Don’t be a monster.
Keep your hands to yourself.
It’s cool to be kind. Live and let live.

Vignette 5:
Don’t talk with your fists.
It’s cool to be kind. Live and let live.

Each vignette ends with the credits “Barbara Kruger —Artist in Residence
Wexner Center for the Arts—The Ohio State University”

Kruger uses vinyl to cover the risers of the stairs leading to Regenstein Hall, the primary exhibition space in the Art Institute’s Rice Building. In white-and-green all-caps type on a black background, with one phrase on each riser. On the left stairs the work reads, NOT GOOD ENOUGH, NOT SKINNY ENOUGH, NOT IRONIC ENOUGH, NOT TRUE ENOUGH, NOT FALSE ENOUGH, NOT STUPID ENOUGH, NOT PETTY ENOUGH, NOT HOT ENOUGH, NOT MAN ENOUGH, NOT MEAN ENOUGH, NOT SILENT ENOUGH, NOT SEXY ENOUGH, NOT SILLY ENOUGH. And on the right stairs the work reads, NOT PRETTY ENOUGH, NOT USELESS ENOUGH, NOT ANGRY ENOUGH, NOT UGLY ENOUGH, NOT DEAD ENOUGH, NOT DUMB ENOUGH, NOT NUMB ENOUGH, NOT REAL ENOUGH, NOT LOUD ENOUGH, NOT BAD ENOUGH, NOT RIGHT ENOUGH, NOT WRONG ENOUGH, NOT NOTHING ENOUGH.

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

Upon entering the Rice Building you encounter the Roger McCormick Sculpture Court. Here Kruger installed her 1997 statue Justice among the neoclassical sculptures in this gallery.

The label for Justice reads:

In 1997 Barbara Kruger created four fiberglass statues (not sculptures, as the artist specifies) of key iconic figures in compromising poses—a departure from Kruger’s two-dimensional practice. In doing so, she attempted to address the unexamined constructions of history and the problematic place of public commemorative monuments: questioning who is honored and why. Justice depicts notorious American lawyer Roy Cohn (1927 to 1986) wearing heels and draped in an American flag while kissing former Director of the Federal Investigation Bureau J. Edgar Hoover (1895 to 1972). Kruger chose an intimate embrace that stands in contrast to her subjects’ political personas and their homophobic, racist, and anti-democratic policies—a choice the artist described as “trying to break down the sanctity around the rallying calls for ‘Justice’ and ‘Family’ and deal with the complex contradictions of public and private lives.”

Kruger classicized the life-size figures using a bright white finish. In placing Justice among the neoclassical works in this gallery, the artist draws a connection between the virtuous expressions of our nation’s past and this statue, which questions traditional commemorations.

Unless noted otherwise, all type in Kruger’s artwork is Futura Bold, a sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. Based on geometric shapes, it is similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period.

Another Kruger installation is positioned at the far north wall of the Michigan Avenue ticketing room. The top half of the composition features white type on a horizontal green band. Underneath this are five alternating bands of black and white, with contrasting type in white and black. The work reads, WHY ARE YOU HERE? TO LOOK, TO LEARN, TO THINK, TO GROW, TO SEE AND BE SEEN, TO EAT, TO BUY, TO HAVE AN EXPERIENCE, TO POSE, TO PLAY, TO QUESTION, TO ANSWER, TO SELFIE, TO BELIEVE, TO DOUBT?

Kruger produced a series of rogue audio installations for this exhibition. They are located at the museum’s Michigan and Monroe entrance vestibules, in the museum shops and elevators in the Rice Building and the Modern Wing, on the stairway leading to the Rice Building, and throughout the exhibition in Regenstein Hall.