An Analysis of Barbra Krueger'S Work on Michelangelo

In the earlier centuries, females did not have the same access to art education as men. A lot of the female artist never had an opportunity to become a great artist, unlike males ( Linda Noclin, Why Have There Been no Great Women. Males throughout history had always had more rights and more privileges compared to females. Males were able to receive great education, they were also the ones who were socializing more compared to females, and do to the circumstances they would be the ones to get more fame or press because of their artwork. The Lack of education really effected women in many different ways.

It took a toll on females industry pertaining to art because they didn’t know how use materials to draw or make art. Education gave an opportunity for people to communicate and understand each other. But if a person doesn’t know how to draw and express themselves through colors and lines their art would not be so influential to people who are intrigued about art.

This leads into the next topic of Barbra Kruger who created an art piece called, The Untitled You Invest in The Divinity of The Masterpiece 1982. Barbra Kruger was one of the well known American artist who was born on January 26, 1945. (Wikipedia) She likes to use black and white images that she comes across and post “ overlaid with declarative captions, stated in white-on-red Futura Bold Oblique or Helvetica Ultra Condensed text.” (Wikipedia ). Barbra Kruger was intrigued about poetry reading and writing. So She began on furthering her career pursuing poetry. As time went on she changed her mind so she went back and continue with teaching art and created her artwork pieces. Barbra Kruger was known for beautiful “ silkscreen prints where she placed a direct and concise caption across photographs” (The Art Story)

In the artwork, Barbra Kruger took an image from Michelangelo, who is painted in the Sistine Chapel in 1508, the creation of man who is Adam which is touching God’s hand(figure 1). This illustration was broken down to comparing ourselves to God. I believe that we as human beings are not like God. Certain people put other people on a higher pedestal than others, and it’s not fair.

People always portray themselves as Godly. In my opinion that is big position to fulfill. Michelangelo was looked up to as a Godly man throughout his years in the art industry, a lot of people compared him to God. The issue was we as audiences should stop comparing ones artistic craft to the next artist craft. I think the real reason why Michelangelo became famous for his art piece is because the pope ask him to paint the ceiling of Sistine Chapel ( Duckster) . Michelangelo took scenes from a biblical bible and painted each scenes in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It took him fours year but eventually completed the job. (Duckster)

This piece is basically about “ Michel Angelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes, where the creation of man is represented through the touch of God’s finger to Adam’s.” ( Moma). kruger combines a black and white background and around the the art piece is a solid red frame tracing the outline. Inside the artwork she includes a boldly text called “Divinity” going across the image. She emphasized that divinity is based on us the audience judging art piece. This piece is mainly focusing on societal opinions on how they view art and also how they compare men to women. It’s important to understand “you, your , I etc when viewing Barbara Kruger’s artwork You Invest In the Divinity Of The Masterpiece 1982. Barbra Kruger focuses on” you” which is us the audience who are judging each artist craft of work.

Each art work has a story to tell and it’s imperative to always give an artists the benefit of the doubt when dealing with art. When an art is being displayed at a gallery, it’s helpful to understand that each work of art that is shown is sentimental to an artist point of view. Even though the dealer is gaining profit from the gallery the artist main goal is to address whatever controversy that he or she would like to address from previous history.

Art has been around for many centuries. Art shows what an artist is thinking and feeling. Art gives an artist a powerful way to express themselves and it also comes in different kinds of color, shapes and sizes etc. An artist uses different techniques when creating art and as a result to that they get their audiences attention on how they feel about a certain particular subject that he or she comes across. Some artists love controversy and some artist just go with the flow.As well as Barbra Kruger, who is well known for “ laying aggressively directive slogans over black-and-white photographs that she finds in magazines” (Artsy) She lets it be known that us as an audience put artists on a pedestal that they do not need to be on. I think the choice of bolder letters lets it be known that there is deeper message within the artwork.

As a psychology major myself, I know that bolded letters attract the human eye because of the color of the text and also the size of the text. The human eye picks up on bolded letter that are shaded more to emphasize what is important throughout the text being read. The graphic fonts make the viewers involved because it catches their attention by stating “Divinity” in the middle of the Kruger’s artwork. Divinity is also known as a state of things that comes from some sort of higher being such as God, spirits etc. Divinity is usually implied to individuals who are “ a state of being God”.(Cambridge Dictionary) Kruger points out that you as the viewer are emphasizing that certain artist we like are putting them in a higher hierarchy so that’s why she bolded the letters across her art piece.

I agree with Kruger point of viewing saying that us as viewers put certain artist on a higher pedestal than other artist. The Lack of education made certain female artist have a hard time with creating art. Barbra Kruger, You Invest In Divinity of the Masterpiece, (1982 )She addresses this issue by approaching an image by “ divine” Michelangelo and layering it with bolded text. Kruger instilled that each artist should be treated with the same amount of respect and that no one should be viewed as equal to God. Throughout the paper I am writing Barbra Kruger salsifies that her beliefs of the audience dictates the understanding of the artwork being presented to them at a art gallery. I agree with Barbra Kruger because a lot of viewers who deal with art are so judgmental. And that they are the ones who put artists in a higher position than the rest of the artist dealing with art.

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