Kruger, ''Untitled (your body is a battleground),'' 1989

"Untitled (your body is a battleground)"
Barbara Kruger
1989
designed for the 1989 March on Washington in support of women's rights and the abortion-rights movement

photographic silkscreen on vinyl
112×112" (284.5×284.5cm)
Santa Monica, CA: The Broad Art Foundation

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This page was last updated January 21, 2008.

"Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground)" exemplifies Kruger's interest in addressing and interpreting heated political issues of the moment. Using as a central image a silk-screened frontal photograph of a model's face, she gives the image additional meaning by dividing the large canvas it occupies into sections: right and left the image reverses from positive to negative, and from top to bottom the face is divided into thirds emblazoned with the slogan "Your body is a battleground." Kruger critiques the objectified standard of symmetry applied in modern times to feminine beauty, and perpetuated at fever pitch by media and advertising.

The composition originally included more text and was designed as a poster for the massive pro-choice march that took place on April 9, 1989 in Washington, D.C. Additionally, Kruger has allowed the image to be displayed on postcards with the text "Support Abortion, Birth Control, and Women's Rights". Reproduced here is the large scale original painting in the Foundation's collection. The Foundation's collection includes six works by Kruger.

Source:
The Broad Art Foundation -- http://www.broadartfoundation.org/collection/kruger.html