바바라 크루거의 사회 참여적 미술 연구 -1980~90년대 작업을 중심으로-

Abstract

Barbara Kruger, widely known as a feminist artist, is working on art with a tendency to participate in society to criticize various social issues, including gender discrimination. She dealt with the issue of women who are discriminated against in a male-centered society by revealing the way women's images are mainly reproduced by patriarchal perspectives in the early stages of artistic activities. She gradually interpreted the essential cause of gender discrimination as irrationality in social power relations. So she expressed a sense of problem with society as a whole, including race, class, and differences between the rich and the poor, in artworks. Nevertheless, existing research and attempt to interpret only female attention her art in art criticism. On the other hand, relatively, there was a lack of research that viewed her work as socially participatory art. Therefore, this study aims to clarify that Kruger's art work is an art with a tendency to participate in society starting with women's problems and a wide range of social problems. With this purpose, I would like to analyze its content and formal characteristics and study its significance, focusing on her works in the 1980s and 1990s. In terms of content, Barbara Kruger's work begins with a feminist discourse and expands its perspective to social issues, revealing absurdities in power relations through works. In terms of form, strategic methods were used in the production techniques and exhibition methods to show a sense of criticism toward society. She mainly modified and used the mass media image and used advertising techniques. She also tried to provide viewers with the possibility of open interpretation by exhibiting art in a special way. Through this study, it can be seen that Barbara Kruger's art is meaningful in increasing the social role of art by revealing the problems that our society must solve together and allowing viewers to actively interpret the work.