September 30, 2016 – January 22, 2017 East Building, Pod 3 Tower
Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Know nothing, Believe anything, Forget everything), 1987/2014, digital print on vinyl, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of the Collectors Committee, Sharon and John D. Rockefeller IV, Howard and Roberta Ahmanson, Denise and Andrew Saul, Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg Fund, Agnes Gund, and Michelle Smith.
This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.
A focused exhibition featuring the work of American artist Barbara Kruger (b. 1945) reopens the East Building Tower Gallery after nearly three years of renovation to the space. Inspired by the Gallery's recent acquisition of Kruger's Untitled (Know nothing, Believe anything, Forget everything) (1987/2014), the exhibition comprises related images of faces and figures in profile over which Kruger has superimposed her striking phrases and figures of speech. The distinctive direct address of Kruger's texts (using active verbs and personal pronouns) confronts viewers straight on, contrasting with her selected images of side-glancing figures, receiving and averting the audience’s gaze. The results are arresting conceptual works of visual power and wit.
In the Tower: Barbara Kruger
Untitled (You thrive on mistaken identity), 1981, photograph, 60 × 40 in. (152.4 × 101.6 cm), Matthias Brunner.
In the Tower: Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Memory is your image of perfection), 1982, photograph, 61 × 34 in. (154.94 × 86.36 cm), Collection Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Museum purchase with proceeds from Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego Art Auction 2002, International and Contemporary Collectors Funds, and funds from Nancy B. Tieken.
In the Tower: Barbara Kruger
Untitled (We have received orders not to move), 1982, photograph, 69 ¾ × 47 ½ in. (177.17 × 120.65 cm), Susan Bay-Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy.
In the Tower: Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Charisma is the perfume of your gods), 1982, photograph, 49 × 48 in. (124.46 × 121.92 cm), Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio. Purchased with funds provided by Carl R. Gerber (OC 1958), in memory of Elizabeth Ann Gerber.
In the Tower: Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Your gaze hits the side of my face), 1983, photograph, 55 ¼ × 40 ⅞ in. (140.34 × 103.82 cm), Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland.
In the Tower: Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Your creation is divine, Our reproduction is human), 1984, photograph, 72 × 48 in. (182.88 × 121.92 cm), Phyllis and William Mack.
In the Tower: Barbara Kruger
Untitled (We don’t need another hero), 1987, silkscreen on vinyl, 108 ⅞ × 209 ³⁄₁₆ × 2 ½ in. (276.54 × 531.34 × 6.35 cm), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Gift from the Emily Fisher Landau Collection.
In the Tower: Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Know nothing, Believe anything, Forget everything), 1987/2014, digital print on vinyl, 108 × 134 ¹¹⁄₁₆ in. (274.32 × 342.05 cm), National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of the Collectors Committee, Sharon and John D. Rockefeller IV, Howard and Roberta Ahmanson, Denise and Andrew Saul, Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg Fund, Agnes Gund, and Michelle Smith.
In the Tower: Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Love is something you fall into), 1990, silkscreen on vinyl, 64 ½ × 156 in. (163.83 × 396.24 cm), Hall Collection.
In the Tower: Barbara Kruger
Untitled (A picture is worth more than a thousand words), 1992, silkscreen on vinyl, 82 × 123 in. (208.28 × 312.42 cm), Private Collection of Lauren and Adam Nathanson.
In the Tower: Barbara Kruger
Untitled (The future belongs to those who can see it), 1997, silkscreen on vinyl, 85 × 60 in. (215.9 × 152.4 cm), from the Chris and Dori Carter Collection.
In the Tower: Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Think of me thinking of you), 2013, digital print on vinyl, 96 × 75 ½ in. (243.84 × 191.77 cm), Private Collection of Diane von Furstenberg.
In the Tower: Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Half Life), 2015, vinyl, Dimensions variable, Courtesy of the Artist.
Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Sponsors: The exhibition is made possible by The Tower Project of the National Gallery of Art.
Attendance: 60,330
Brochure: In the Tower: Barbara Kruger by Molly Donovan. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2016.
