The mural of Barbara Kruger in Los Angeles is the most poignant work of art of 2025

History repeats itself, so does Barbara Kruger. Over and over, she created text-heavy works of art, thus creating visible forms of secrets in the media. Over and over, she returns to past works, many of which are located in public places and has modified them, the most recently for a series of videos she calls “replay.”

Why so many repetitions?

Looking for answers Untitled (question)This is Kruger originally produced for the temporary venue of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art in 1990, and then revised for the institution’s Geffen contemporary space in 2018. The 2018 version measures 191 feet and is 191 feet long and could have remained in the 2020 presidential election in the United States, but it is still next to Geffen’s contemporary and has been living in contemporary times today.

The National Guard has been under Kruger’s mural at least twice. One was in 1992 when Los Angeles became a widespread protest site after Los Angeles became four Los Angeles Police Department police officers accused of exerting too much force on Rodney King. In the photos taken by Gary Leonard that year, three soldiers can be seen waving their guns as they walked away from Kruger’s mural, which resembled the American flag, and whose stripes were replaced by the foreshadowing words. “Who surpasses the law?” asked Kruger’s work.

The answer to the question came this week when photographer Jay L. Clendenin took another photo Untitled (question) It stands tall above the National Guard and wears protective equipment. The National Guard has been deployed by President Donald Trump to combat people protesting ICE, a country raided immigration in Los Angeles that the group claimed the group had no record earlier this month. But protesters are nowhere to be seen in Klundin’s pictures, which is not far from static and disturbing calm, even vandalism, robbery and arrest. “Who surpasses the law?” Kruger’s work asked again.

Of course, there are simple answers to this question. According to the Supreme Court: The President, this is one. Last year, before Trump was re-elected, the Supreme Court ruled that previous presidents had legal immunity to their actions while leading the country. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in most opinions: “The president is not much higher than the law.” This is actually the opposite.

But the protests also offer new answers to the question. Is ice more than the law? National Guard? One can easily imagine Kruger having similar inquiries about her art in the 90s (or even before that), and it was just her prophetic proof.

Kruger has always been a keen observer of power. In the 1980s, she saw its hidden form in the mass media. Rely on skills learned in the editorial world while working as a publication for page designers and image editors, e.g. Miss and Houses and gardensshe casts images next to the text compressed by Futura Bold Oldique and Helvetica Ultra – Sans serif tyxfaces can “really cut into the grease”, as Kruger herself once said. She uses these fonts to convey a direct communication of the function directly about the function, so her work is often cited by activists who found resonance in art decades ago.

Untitled (question) It was always its own protest, although it didn’t have much to do with Trump at first. The mural was commissioned by MOCA in 1989 and was originally intended to introduce the text of a commitment to allegiance. Even though Kruger began conceiving the work two years ago, the gesture seemed to tilt to the conservative 1988 hand-wave attempting to shut out the promise of allegiance, while George HW Bush, vice president of Ronald Reagan, claimed that the gesture was unconstitutional. A spokesperson for a Republican representative told Los Angeles Times In 1989, Kruger seemed to have “blown smoke on the left wing”.

Her initial proposal was eventually overlooked not because of Republican sulfuric acid, but because of concerns from local Japanese-Americans, who said the work would bring harmful memories that their ancestors were forced to recite promises when they were imprisoned during World War II. Eventually, the mural turned into a group of cut questions: “Who surpasses the law? Who is bought and sold? Who is free to choose? Who can follow the orders according to the order? Who pays tribute to whom? Who has the longest time? Who has the longest voice? Who has the biggest cry first? Who has died first? Who laughed?”

Since then, this work has appeared in at least two cities and in various forms. In 1991, the year before the Gulf War began, Kruger painted Untitled (question) Enter the look of Mary Boone Gallery in New York. Then, in 2018, an anonymous donor gave Moca money to get Kruger to refurbish it again.

Kruger New York Magazine The president’s ugly candor is covered with the word “loser”. At the time, the work was widely discussed, and although it seemed a bit awkward to look back, it already knew it even though Kruger told his scheduled audience. Untitled (question)By contrast, even though it is obviously about him now, it is not included in Trump’s reference. In fact, Kruger didn’t even change much of her text at all. “This work remains resonant after 30 years, which is both tragic and disappointing,” she said in a 2018 interview at the museum.

The magic in it Untitled (question): Unfortunately, this work is eternal because abuse of power always happens. They happened in 1992, when LAPD officials and the National Guard killed 10 protesters in the aftermath of the Rodney King case, and they happened again, the National Guard now acted in the way Governor Gavin Newsom, who described it as “illegal.”

They’ve happened a lot between them, too Untitled (question)played a role in new protests against police killing black Americans. “Who bought the scam?” Read a mural covering the exterior walls of a building on the street, which was eventually blocked by LAPD officials. Kruger discovered her work on CNN on June 1, 2020, took her screen and used the pictures as one of the opening portfolios of her 2021 Chicago Institute of Art survey. “The seventh night of protests that Trump threatened military crackdown,” reads Chyron of the broadcast. Doesn’t sound familiar?

History repeats itself, so does Barbara Kruger. Maybe this is why Los Angeles Times Now there is no one running, but two functions Untitled (question) Only in the past decade. Depend on era “This provocation gives Trump what he wants: the moment he can declare martial law. It seems that it hasn’t worked yet,” Kruger said of the protests this week.

So, why not ask her the name of her work again?

“Who is outside the law? Who is bought and sold? Who is free to choose? Who has time? Who follows the order? Who pays tribute to the longest time? Who has the greatest prayer? Who dies first? Who dies? Who laughs?”