Untitled (We Are Notifying You of a Change of Address)

Barbara Kruger

Brooklyn Museum photograph

1 of 2

Caption

Barbara Kruger American, born 1945. Untitled (We Are Notifying You of a Change of Address), 1986. Gelatin silver photograh and silkscreen, 75 1/4 × 48 in. (191.1 × 121.9 cm) frame: 76 1/8 × 48 7/8 × 2 1/2 in. (193.4 × 124.1 × 6.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Helen Babbott Sanders Fund, Caroline A.L. Pratt Fund, and Charles Stewart Smith Memorial Fund, 87.56. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 87.56_bw.jpg)

Gallery

Not on view

Collection

Photography

Title

Untitled (We Are Notifying You of a Change of Address)

Date

1986

Medium

Gelatin silver photograh and silkscreen

Classification

Photograph

Dimensions

75 1/4 × 48 in. (191.1 × 121.9 cm) frame: 76 1/8 × 48 7/8 × 2 1/2 in. (193.4 × 124.1 × 6.4 cm)

Credit Line

Helen Babbott Sanders Fund, Caroline A.L. Pratt Fund, and Charles Stewart Smith Memorial Fund

Accession Number

87.56

Rights

© artist or artist's estate

The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org. If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.

Frequent Art Questions

  • What does the writing on this poster allude to?

    The artist herself hasn't spoken extensively about it but in the context of Kruger's other feminist work we believe it may be a reference to marriage as a kind of imprisonment for women, given the chains.
    In this context the text likely refers to a woman, recently married and moving in with her spouse, filing change of address forms.
    Another theory is that the shackles and text are an allusion to the forced removal of African peoples from their countries to be used as slaves in the U.S.A.
    Thank you for those great explanations!

Have information?

Have information about an artwork? Contact us at

bkmcollections@brooklynmuseum.org.