Word art
Word art or text art is a form of art in which text - words or phrases - is the main component, combining language with visual imagery. Two broad kinds exist: one uses words for their ideological meaning, their iconic status, or their familiarity from advertising, as in the work of Barbara Kruger, On Kawara, and Jenny Holzer; the other, exemplified by Christopher Wool's word paintings, makes the lettering itself the artistic component. The style has been used since the 1950s by postmodern artists, partly as a reaction to the abstract art of the time, and appears in painting, sculpture, lithography, and screen-printing, in projection mapping, and even on T-shirts and other practical items. Its borrowed language - slogans, political chants, graphic design - ranges in effect from the serious to the comical.
Defining characteristics
- Words or phrases as the dominant visual element of the work
- Language lifted from advertising, political slogans, and graphic design
- Text working as both meaning and image - typography treated as picture
- Deadpan, confrontational, or comic tone, often set by repetition and scale
- Cross-media execution: painting, sculpture, print, projection, and everyday objects
Key figures
- Barbara Kruger (b. 1945) — Photomontage word pieces pairing advertising-style images with provocative slogans
- Jenny Holzer (b. 1950) — Text projections and truisms that turn language into public spectacle
- Christopher Wool (b. 1955) — Word paintings that make bold lettering the picture itself
- On Kawara (1933-2014) — Date paintings and telegrams that reduce art to stated time and language
- Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) — Painter of isolated words and phrases drawn from popular speech
Example works
- Apocalypse Now — Christopher Wool (1988)
- Untitled (Your body is a battleground) — Barbara Kruger (1989)
- Truisms — Jenny Holzer (1977-1979)
Sources
- Word art - Wikipedia encyclopedia