Internationally renowned American artist Barbara Kruger is the latest creative talent to design the new Pocket Tube Map cover.

Untitled (Tube Map) presents a subtly humorous and human interpretation of life in the city, navigated via the Tube

The cover, which is twelfth in the series of specially commissioned works by the Tube's Art on the Underground team, will be available to customers at Tube stations from 21 May 2010.

Kruger's artwork 'Untitled' (Tube Map) shows a section of the Tube map in which the station names have been replaced by words that relate to the artist's experience of that part of London, a city she loves and knows well.

Tube map reworked

St.James's Park is renamed 'Fame', Westminster station becomes 'Reason' and Victoria station 'Pride' in Kruger's subtly subversive reworking of our familiar map.

Kruger joins an illustrious list of artists who have created Pocket Tube Map covers for Art on the Underground, including Jeremy Deller, Richard Long, David Shrigley and Mark Wallinger.

The maps are becoming recognised as collectors' items as the portfolio grows.

Available for free from stations across the network, the map has one of the largest print runs for any organisation in Europe, with over five million printed per design and almost 15 million per year.

Limited edition artwork

Art on the Underground Curator Sally Shaw, said: 'We are excited and privileged to be working with another internationally renowned artist on this project.

'Untitled (Tube Map) presents a subtly humorous and human interpretation of life in the city, navigated via the Tube. 

'I am looking forward to hearing what our customers think about Barbara's work and the others in the series via our website.'

To celebrate the twelfth map in an ongoing collection Tube travellers are also being offered the chance to win a framed limited edition poster of the 12 works in the series.

To enter the competition simply vote for your favourite Tube map cover at www.tfl.gov.uk/art


Notes to editors

  • The Pocket Tube Map cover art works are owned outright by London Underground and form the basis of a permanent collection of unique works by world class artists, including Cornelia Parker, Richard Long, Liam Gillick and Jeremy Deller
  • For more information about Art on the Underground, please visit www.tfl.gov.uk/art
  • Barbara Kruger (born 1945, USA) cites graphic design as the biggest influence on her work. Her training was as an advertisement designer on Condé Nast's leading fashion title Mademoiselle magazine in New York, where, within a year and at the age of only 22, she was promoted to chief designer. In 1980 she had her first solo exhibition at P.S. 1, Long Island City, New York. In 2005 Kruger received the "Golden Lion" for Lifetime Achievement at the 51st Venice Biennale and she is currently professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Kruger recently had a solo exhibition at Mary Boone Gallery which featured a new video installation entitled 'The Globe Shrinks' (2010). This was a multiple channel video installation in which we saw Kruger's ongoing engagement with the innate contradictions of direct address and the unspoken, as well as the interplay of pictures and words. 'The Globe Shrinks' will be exhibited at Sprüth Magers Berlin next year. Barbara Kruger's work also features in the group show Beg, Borrow and Steal at The Rubell Family Collection, Miami (until 29 May)
  • London Underground (LU) is undertaking a major programme of renewal as part of Transport for London's Investment Programme. This will inevitably result in some disruption for passengers, but TfL is working hard to provide information and alternative travel options. The work is essential to provide for London's growing transport needs now, and into the future. TfL is urging all Londoners and Tube, London Overground and DLR passengers to 'check before you travel' at weekends, allowing extra journey time where necessary. Weekend travel news is available at www.tfl.gov.uk