Artist Barbara Kruger, Critic of Capitalism, Has a Market Moment

If she were judged by exposure alone, Barbara Kruger would be the most successful artist alive. Now 77, she came to fame by superimposing white Futura type on a red background over appropriated imagery: Her most famous work is probably a hand holding the words “I shop therefore I am,” from 1987.

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, her 1989 image of a woman’s face with the words “Your body is a battleground” has been reprinted in newspapers and shared widely across social media. “Next to Warhol,” says Mary Boone, who represented Kruger until shutting her gallery in 2019, “there’s not another artist, aside from perhaps Cindy Sherman, who’s been as influential for what things look like and how people see the world as Barbara.”