Barbara Kruger, Untitled (We Don’t Need Another Hero), 1987

Narrator: Wow. This picture is HUGE. It's practically the size of a billboard advertisement. To make it, Barbara Kruger took a picture that had been printed in a magazine or book and blew it up to a MUCH larger scale. This kind of print is made with small dots of ink—like pixels on a computer. Kruger made THESE dots so big that if you’re standing really close, the picture might almost be a little unclear.  

But still—it’s not too hard to see that the picture shows a boy and a girl. He’s flexing his bicep and making a VERY serious face. She’s poking his arm and looking at him in a way that seems admiring? Teasing? What do the words on the canvas tell you about their relationship? “We don’t need another hero.”

Kruger’s work often gets you thinking about stereotypes—unfair and untrue beliefs about groups of people, like all boys are this way, or all girls are that way. What are some stereotypes about girls and boys? Or about who can be a hero? What do you think this artwork has to say about that?