Artistic Activism: Political Awareness and Gender Issues in Barbara Kruger’s Work.

Authors

  • Lina Alves Arruda Universidade Estadual de Campinas
  • Maria de Fátima Morethy Couto Universidade Estadual de Campinas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-026X2011000200005

Abstract

The present article introduces and contextualizes early feminist artworks which emerged in the late 1960’s up to the 1980’s. It analyzes the historical circumstances which linked the artistic and social spheres, as well as the aesthetic and formal problems that came along with the artistic activist practice and its reception as a movement. The analysis will be based on the work of the North-American artist Barbara Kruger, who has produced fundamental pieces which consolidate feminist art. Kruger’s work has a critical approach towards a large variety of subjects regarding women (violence, abortion, identity, social roles, aesthetics). The content of her work is engaged with important social matters and with the political scene at the period of its production, and it also bears a direct relation with the feminist theories of that period, reasons which allow for an analysis of both the artistic and the social-political contexts.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Lina Alves Arruda, Universidade Estadual de Campinas

É formada em Artes Visuais pela Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) e Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Espanha. Realizou a iniciação científica “Análise das obras de Barbara Kruger” orientada pela Prof.a Dr.a Maria de Fátima Morethy Couto e financiada pelo PIBIC em 2008. Desenvolve
atualmente, na Universidade de São Paulo (USP), a pesquisa de mestrado “Estratégias desconstrutivas: a crítica feminista da representação”.

Maria de Fátima Morethy Couto, Universidade Estadual de Campinas

É doutora em História da Arte pela Universidade de Paris I – Panthéon/Sorbonne, professora do Departamento de Artes Plásticas do Instituto de Artes da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) e pesquisadora do CNPq. Foi bolsista de pós-doutorado da Fapesp de 1999 a 2002, desenvolvendo pesquisa sobre a crítica de arte de vanguarda no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos durante as décadas de 1940 e 1960. Parte dessa pesquisa foi publicada em 2004 pela Editora da UNICAMP (Por uma vanguarda nacional. A crítica brasileira em busca de uma identidade artística – 1940/1960). É coautora do livro ABCdaire Cézanne (Paris: Flammarion, 1995) e autora de diversos artigos dedicados à arte brasileira do século XX e à crítica de vanguarda.

Downloads

Published

2011-01-01

How to Cite

Arruda, L. A., & Couto, M. de F. M. (2011). Artistic Activism: Political Awareness and Gender Issues in Barbara Kruger’s Work. Revista Estudos Feministas, 19(2), 389. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-026X2011000200005

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 2 (2011)

Section

Articles

License

Revista Estudos Feministas is under the Creative Commons International 4.0 Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), that allows sharing the work with recognition of authorship and initial publication in this journal.

The license allows:

Sharing (copying and redistributing the material in any support or format) and/or adapting (remixing, transforming, and creating from the material) for any purpose, even if commercial.

The licensor cannot revoke these rights provided the terms of the license are respected. The terms are the following:

Attribution – you should give the appropriate credit, provide a link to the license and indicate if changes were made. This can be done in several ways without suggesting that the licensor has approved of the use.

Without additional restrictions – You cannot apply legal terms or technological measures that prevent others from doing something allowed by the license.