Barbara Kruger (b. 1945)

"I find myself influenced by the presence of time passing, but seldom by particular events. From childhood on, the attention received or denied, the pleasures or absence of comfort or shelter, the place of money, color, class, and power: in other words, the accumulation of the everyday. These moments, these increments, make us who we are and make us make the work we make." (B. Kruger quoted in L. Tillman, Thinking of You, Los Angeles, 1999, p. 196)

"And what about art? It can be defined as the ability, through visual, verbal, gestural, and musical means, to objectify one’s experience of the world: to show and tell, through a kind of eloquent shorthand, how it feels to be alive." (B. Kruger, quoted in Barbara Kruger, exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1999, p. 26).