Barbara Kruger - London – Sprüth Magers

The razor-sharp, witty and unmistakable work of Barbara Kruger explores the power of image and word and touches on the dynamics of control, class, corruption and consumerism.

For over four decades, her voice and aesthetic have transcended the insularity of the art world and influenced everyday visual culture. The artist’s most recent text-based wall work and series of vinyls are set in dialogue with a group of ‘paste-ups’—collages from the 1980s related to some of her early and best-known works.

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (A thing called me), 2024
Digital print on vinyl
213.4 × 213.4 × 6.5 cm | 84 × 84 × 2 5/8 inches

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (A thing called you), 2024
Digital print on vinyl
213.4 × 213.4 × 6.5 cm | 84 × 84 × 2 5/8 inches

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In a compelling voice, large-scale digital prints on vinyl such as Untitled (A thing called me) and Untitled (A thing called you) continue Kruger’s frequent use of pronouns: assuming a speaker and suggesting a recipient, the text aligns the viewer with the work.

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (A thing called me), 2024
Digital print on vinyl
213.4 × 213.4 × 6.5 cm | 84 × 84 × 2 5/8 inches

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (A thing called me), 2024

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (A thing called me), 2024 (detail)

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (A thing called me), 2024

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (A thing called you), 2024
Digital print on vinyl
213.4 × 213.4 × 6.5 cm | 84 × 84 × 2 5/8 inches

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (A thing called you), 2024

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (A thing called you), 2024 (detail)

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (A thing called you), 2024

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Unlike the other six stretched works, the adjacent Untitled (End of world) is a vinyl wallpaper. Covering an entire wall, its expansive scale confronts viewers with their own positions and feelings.

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (End of world), 2024
Digital print on wallpaper
332.7 × 774.7 cm | 131 × 305 inches

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (End of world), 2024
Digital print on wallpaper
332.7 × 774.7 cm | 131 × 305 inches

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (End of world), 2024

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Untitled (Being and nothingness), which quotes the title of Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1943 seminal work on existentialism, consciousness and freedom, meets the gigantic words of Untitled (Winner loser) that connect to the world’s ongoing cycle of war, power abuse, brutality and subjugation.

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Winner loser), 2024
Digital print on vinyl
213.4 × 213.4 × 6.5 cm | 84 × 84 × 2 5/8 inches

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Winner loser), 2024
Digital print on vinyl
213.4 × 213.4 × 6.5 cm | 84 × 84 × 2 5/8 inches

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Winner loser), 2024

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Winner loser), 2024 (detail)

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Winner loser), 2024

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Being and nothingness), 2024
Digital print on vinyl
213.4 × 213.4 × 6.5 cm | 84 × 84 × 2 5/8 inches

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Details

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Being and nothingness), 2024
Digital print on vinyl
213.4 × 213.4 × 6.5 cm | 84 × 84 × 2 5/8 inches

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Being and nothingness), 2024

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Being and nothingness), 2024 (detail)

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Being and nothingness), 2024

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Forget to remember), 2024
Digital print on vinyl
213.4 × 213.4 × 6.5 cm | 84 × 84 × 2 5/8 inches

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Kruger’s new textual wall works (all 2024) grapple with our current dystopian reality.

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Forget to remember), 2024
Digital print on vinyl
213.4 × 213.4 × 6.5 cm | 84 × 84 × 2 5/8 inches

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Forget to remember), 2024

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Forget to remember), 2024 (detail)

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Forget to remember), 2024

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Kruger’s new textual wall works (all 2024) grapple with our current dystopian reality.

The stark works activate the space and address the viewer with their bold statements, white on black, that play with the seductive visual effects of three-dimensionality.

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Long life), 2024
Digital print on vinyl
213.4 × 213.4 × 6.5 cm | 84 × 84 × 2 5/8 inches

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Long life), 2024
Digital print on vinyl
213.4 × 213.4 × 6.5 cm | 84 × 84 × 2 5/8 inches

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Long life), 2024

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Long life), 2024 (detail)

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Long life), 2024

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The stark works activate the space and address the viewer with their bold statements, white on black, that play with the seductive visual effects of three-dimensionality.

The show’s works exemplify Kruger’s ability to consistently question how we reveal ourselves to one another and to the cultures that construct and contain us.

On the gallery’s first floor, fourteen of Kruger’s famed paste-ups are on display. Money and its corruptible power, a dominant leitmotif in her oeuvre, manifests itself throughout the present selection.

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (How come only the unborn have the right to life?), 1986
Photograph and type on paper
22 × 14.9 cm | 8 5/8 × 5 7/8 inches
48 x 39 x 4 cm | 19 x 15 3/8 x 1 5/8 inches (framed)

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Roy toy), 1986
Photograph and type on paper
23.5 × 15.2 cm | 9 1/4 × 6 inches
45.1 x 36.2 x 3.8 cm | 17 3/4 x 14 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches (framed)

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (How come only the unborn have the right to life?, 1986

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (How come only the unborn have the right to life?), 1986

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Roy toy), 1986
Photograph and type on paper
23.5 × 15.2 cm | 9 1/4 × 6 inches
45.1 x 36.2 x 3.8 cm | 17 3/4 x 14 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches (framed)

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Roy toy), 1986

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (We are not sugar and spice and everything nice), 1983
Photograph and type on paper
25.1 × 15.9 cm | 9 7/8 × 6 1/4 inches
45.7 × 38.8 x 6.4 cm | 18 × 14 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches (framed)

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Who speaks? Who is silent?), 1984
Photograph and type on paper
21.6 × 13.7 cm | 8 1/2 × 5 3/8 inches
41.9 × 34.3 x 6.4 cm | 16 1/2 × 13 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches (framed)

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (We are not sugar and spice and everything nice), 1983

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Who speaks? Who is silent?), 1984
Photograph and type on paper
21.6 × 13.7 cm | 8 1/2 × 5 3/8 inches
41.9 × 34.3 x 6.4 cm | 16 1/2 × 13 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches (framed)

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Who speaks? Who is silent?), 1984

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Money talks), 1984
Photograph and type on paper
16.5 × 20.3 cm | 6 1/2 × 8 inches
38.1 x 41.3 x 3.8 cm | 15 x 16 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches (framed)

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Business as usual), 1987
Photograph and type on paper
16.5 × 19.4 cm | 6 1/2 × 7 5/8 inches
37.8 x 40.6 x 3.8 cm | 14 7/8 x 16 x 1 1/2 inches (framed)

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Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Money talks), 1984
Photograph and type on paper
16.5 × 20.3 cm | 6 1/2 × 8 inches
38.1 x 41.3 x 3.8 cm | 15 x 16 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches (framed)

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Money talks), 1984

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Business as usual), 1987
Photograph and type on paper
16.5 × 19.4 cm | 6 1/2 × 7 5/8 inches
37.8 x 40.6 x 3.8 cm | 14 7/8 x 16 x 1 1/2 inches (framed)

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Business as usual), 1987

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As so often, her clever combination of image and text allows for a myriad of possible readings that address and engage our hopes, desires, fears and values.