Barbara Kruger

In many high school art classes, women artists are not equally represented. As a consequence, neither is feminist art. Barbara Kruger’s work incorporates feminist views along with contemporary social and political issues.

"I think that all sorts of art activities, whether written, played, or visualized, are attempts to send messages from one person to another. I don’t think of it as news, but rather as a kind of condensed communication conveyed with a deep and startling economy."
Barbara Kruger

Artcyclopedia,the Fine Arts Search Engine
Image and links to various Kruger pieces in museum collections and articles about Kruger
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/kruger_barbara.html

Critique/challenge of objectification and oppression of women &
Critique/challenge of male power as supported by patriarchal discourses
Pictures of 17 classic Barbara Kruger pieces
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/feminism/
kruger/kruger.htm#male%20power



Jenny Holtzer

Holzer’s work is a good example of an investigation of "Truisms." Her text-based art challenges the student’s idea of art. Is it art if it is only words?

TRUISMS, an interactive Jenny Holzer piece presented by the Walker Art Center
http://adaweb.walkerart.org/project/holzer/cgi/pcb.cgi



Guerrilla Girls

This group of artists resists the idea that legitimate art appears only in the galleries. They use the streets as their gallery and deal with issues of racism and sexism. They are also a collaborative group with no one artist being the leader.

"We are a group of anonymous women artists from New York City who formed in the spring of 1985 to combat racism and sexism in the art world, using the media and the streets to do this."

Official Guerrilla Girls Site
The site includes informative and funny texts concerning their history, mission, and methods. Also, a great picture inventory of some of the greatest Guerrilla Girl posters. (Most posters are available for $20.00 each--a great addition for any art classroom!)
http://www.guerrillagirls.com/index.html

Copyright © by the Guerrilla Girls 1995
Thanks to the Guerrilla Girls for permission to reproduce for the CCC site.



Elizabeth Sisco, Louis Hock, David Avalos

These artists’ collaborative work is seen in public places using various advertising spaces. In their bus graphic piece entitled Welcome to America’s Finest Tourism Plantation from 1988 they used a space that would more typically be used to promote tourism as an indictment of the exploitation of Mexican labor.

"As public artists, our purpose is not to make art for the public, but rather to express ourselves as the public. We believe that the creative act involves not only the artist’s initiative, but the community response."

For more information on Sisco, Hock, and Avalos (as well as many other interesting contemporary artists from America’s diverse communities) get the book, Contemporary Art and Multicultural Education, edited by Susan Cahan and Zoya Kocur, Routledge Press, 1996.

See photo of Welcome to America’s Finest Tourist Plantation and other Sisco, Hock, Avalos public artworks.
http://www.uml.edu/Dept/Art/Freeman/freeman/publicart/background/
avalos_sisco_hock/portfolio.html