Art Gallery 

By Terrence H. Witkowski

The purpose of this web page is to illustrate and interpret works of art related to the fields of marketing and consumer behavior.

Exhibit 1
You are seduced by the sex appeal of the inorganic
Barbara Kruger (b. 1945)

 Many objects have gender associations, but few exhibit maleness or femaleness more powerfully than articles of clothing. What is the gender of your consumer goods?

 
Exhibit 2
You can't drag your money into the grave with you
Barbara Kruger (b. 1945), 1990

This painting is in the Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg Art Museum), Hamburg, Germany. It comments on materialism and, given that these are men's shoes, gender.

For further reading see:

Victoria de Grazia, editor, The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).

Barbara Kruger and Kate Linker, Love for Sale: The Words and Pictures of Barbara Kruger (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990).

Sparke, Penny, As Long As It's Pink: The Sexual Politics of Taste (London: HarperCollins, 1995).

The next group of images are examples of American poster art from the Second World War. As part of the home front war effort, the federal government commissioned thousands of different posters to encourage people to conserve gasoline, to consume frugally, to recycle, and to buy war bonds.

Exhibit 3
Have You Really Tried to Save Gas by Getting Into a Car Club
Harold Von Schmidt, 1944. Produced for the Government Printing Office.

Exhibit 4
When you ride ALONE you ride with Hitler! Join a Car-Sharing Club TODAY!
Weimer Pursell, 1943. Printed by the Government Printing Office for the Office of Price Administration.

Exhibit 5
Waste Helps the Enemy. Conserve Material
Vanderlaan. Produced by the Douglas Aircraft Company.

Exhibit 6
Save Waste Fats for Explosives. Take Them to Your Meat Dealer.
Henry Koerner, 1943. Printed by the Government Printing Office for the Office of War Information.

Exhibit 7
Don't Let That Shadow Touch Them. Buy WAR BONDS.
Lawrence B. Smith, 1942. Produced for the Government Printing Office for the U.S. Treasury.

These posters are from the National Archives and Records Administration. For more images visit www.nara.gov/exhall/powers/. For further reading, see:

Heide, Robert and John Gilman (1995), Home Front America: Popular Culture of the World War II Era, San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

Ward, Barbara McLean (1994), Produce and Conserve, Share and Play Square: The Grocer and the Consumer on the Home-Front Battlefield during World War II, Portsmouth, NH: Strawbery Banke Museum.

Witkowski, Terrence H. (1998), "The American Consumer Home Front During World War II," in Advances in Consumer Research, vol. XXV, Joseph W. Alba and J. Wesley Hutchinson, eds., Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research.

More art to come!