Provenance
Mary Boone Gallery, New York
Collection of BMG Bertelsmann
Christie's, New York, 'Post-War and Contemporary (Afternoon Session)', 15 May 2002, lot 371
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner
Catalogue Essay
"I think what I’m trying to do is create moments of recognition. To try to detonate some kind of feeling or understanding of lived experience.” Barbara Kruger

"I just say I’m an artist who works with pictures and words." Barbara Kruger

“Making art is about objectifying your experience of the world, transforming the flow of moments into something visual, or textual, or musical, whatever. Art creates a kind of commentary.” (Barbara Kruger)

Untitled (Look and listen), from 1996, is a seminal work by Barbara Kruger, one of the most prominent postmodern feminist artists of the 1970s and 80s. Kruger’s art has been greatly influenced by years working in the art departments of publisher Condé Nast as graphic designer, art director and picture editor. These graphic skills, perfected at the start of the artist’s career, allow Kruger to skillfully juxtapose found or created photographic images with text in order to create new meanings and interpretations relevant to society at large.

The present lot is a powerful example of the way in which Kruger has used text to address the viewer. This text is written in Kruger’s signature Futura Bold Oblique font in white on a red background. Kruger creates the language that represents a voice of a woman addressing the man, suggesting that even suppressed women will find the way to communicate their feelings and desires. Here, Kruger asks the viewers to ‘look’ and ‘listen’ to women, and urges society to treat them equally to men. In oppostion to the objectification of women evident throughout the history of art and film, Kruger puts the focus on women, allocating them an equal role in contemporary society to that of men, and freeing them from the so-called ‘male gaze’. Kruger has explained this purpose behind her work: “my attempts aim to undermine that singular pontificating male voice-over which ‘correctly’ instructs our pleasures and histories or lack of them. I am wary of the seriousness and confidence of knowledge. I am concerned with who speaks and who is silent: with what is seen and what is not” (the artist quoted in B. Kruger, et. al., Barbara Kruger, Rizzoli, 2010, p. 193).

Kruger’s body of work is multilayered in its complexity; it addresses not only the issues of sexism, but also consumerism, individualism, alienation, power and numerous other human desires. The text used by the artist to create the message becomes the intrinsic part of the work not only visually but also conceptually. Kruger creates work about our society, with its virtues and its vices: “I don’t know if [empathy] has been wired into us. But I mean I’ve never been engaged with the war of the sexes. It’s too binary. The good versus the bad. Who’s the good?” (the artist quoted in Ron Rosenbaum, ‘Barbara Kruger’s Artwork Speaks Truth to Power’, Smithsonian Magazine, July-August 2012). The phrase ‘look and listen’ that addresses the viewer directly way, may be variously interpreted – it could also be an encouragement to people in today’s age of alienation inside the cosmopolitan cities, the age when individualism has reached its peaks, to be more humane and sensitive to people around them – to give way to empathy. By posing questions about every aspect of our culture throughout her oeuvre, Kruger is writing her own narrative that embodies an all-rounded critic of society we live in.

8

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Look and listen)

1996
photographic silkscreen on vinyl
141.8 x 257.3 x 6.6 cm (55 7/8 x 101 1/4 x 2 5/8 in)
This work is unique.

Estimate
£200,000 - 300,000

Sold for £253,250

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

14 February 2013
London

1
Nate Lowman
Green Escalade
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000
Sold for £337,250
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2
Rob Pruitt
Power of the Panda (Happy Alone)
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 †
Sold for £115,250
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3
Dan Colen
A Slip of the Tongue
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡
Sold for £133,250
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4
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Black and Canary Yellow Butterfly) #699
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
Sold for £457,250
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5
Rashid Johnson
Write me In
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡
Sold for £85,250
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6
Donald Judd
Untitled (91-149 Menziken)
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000
Sold for £337,250
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7
Christopher Wool
Untitled (P271)
Estimate £1,300,000 - 1,800,000 ‡
Sold for £1,665,250
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8
Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Look and listen)
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000
Sold for £253,250
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9
Andy Warhol
Brillo Soap Pads Box
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡
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10
Andy Warhol
Tomato Juice Box
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £223,250
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11
Andy Warhol
Hammer and Sickle
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £247,250
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12
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate £1,800,000 - 2,500,000 ‡
Sold for £1,945,250
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13
Andy Warhol
Beatle Boots (Negative)
Estimate £550,000 - 650,000 ‡
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14
Jean-Michel Basquiat
For B.A.M.
Estimate £1,200,000 - 1,800,000 ‡
Sold for £763,830
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15
Banksy
Bomb Middle England
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ♠
Sold for £229,250
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16
Jonathan Wateridge
Jungle River Landscape with Plane Wreck
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ♠
Sold for £109,250
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17
Albert Oehlen
Student II
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡♠
Sold for £169,250
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18
Jean Dubuffet
Le Chien Rodeur
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠
Sold for £325,250
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19
Cecily Brown
East of Eden
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £724,450
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20
Damien Hirst
Untitled 2 (Spot Painting)
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡♠
Sold for £295,250
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21
Marc Quinn
Frozen Head
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £713,250
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22
This lot is no longer available.
23
Rosemarie Trockel
Waterfall
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ♠
Sold for £361,250
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24
Richard Prince
What Can You Do?
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡
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25
Elizabeth Peyton
Dr. Scarpinato (Vincent)
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ‡
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26
George Condo
Untitled (Choo Choo)
Estimate £350,000 - 450,000 ‡
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27
Cindy Sherman
Untitled #469
Estimate £180,000 - 220,000 ‡
Sold for £205,250
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28
The Bruce High Quality Foundation
Las Meninas
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡
Sold for £181,250
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29
Thomas Houseago
Caryatide with Squatting Man
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ♠†
Sold for £73,250
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30
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000 ‡♠
Sold for £79,250
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31
Ryan Sullivan
July 24, 2011 - September 28, 2011
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000
Sold for £91,250
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32
Mark Tansey
Study for the Valley of Doubt
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
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33
Yan Pei-Ming
Invisible Man no. 1
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡♠
Sold for £163,250
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34
Isa Genzken
Empire/Vampire
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ♠
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35
Sterling Ruby
Monument Stalagmite/Headbanger
Estimate £70,000 - 100,000 †
Sold for £85,250
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36
Marc Quinn
Careless Desire
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ♠
Sold for £157,250
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

14 February 2013 London

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Provenance

Catalogue Essay

8

Barbara Kruger

Untitled (Look and listen)

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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14 February 2013
London