John Baldessari - create and work

John Baldessari - he is one of our most influential artists ever, and that since the late 1960s.

Perhaps the main representative of the Concept Art the art world for such a long time through its outstanding skills in a wide variety of genres and techniques, but maybe we also simply like its weird, ironic way and its inimitable dry, sometimes even absurd humor. He showed us a lot of these characteristics in the course of his work:

John Baldessari's way from the painter to the concept artist

Baldessari started his artistic career with painting, which, however, no longer satisfied him very quickly. He had explored the coloring elements and soon knew which color harmonizes with which other color, and decided that he was finished with this topic.

In the future he wanted to use color “just as a signal, as if you come to a traffic light, it is red and that means: stop. Not that you sit there, look at the red and say: what a nice red. It is simply a signal, in this sense I wanted to use color” (John Baldessari's review in his speech to the Golden Lion 2009 in Venice).

This affected the period from 1949 to 1966, followed by numerous work that goes beyond the borders of painting, unusual and often very funny experiments in thorough examination of the irony of a Marcel Duchamp . Towards the end of the 1960s, the decision was made for the concept art , which should meet his life for the next few years.

This decision was celebrated with a unique happening: In 1970, Baldessari caused little sensation with the “Cremation Project” , the decisive part of which was the public burning of his previous images (at least as far as they were still in his possession). The ashes of the pictures were baked in biscuits, which came into an urn that became part of the art installation, as well as a bronze sign with the life data of the destroyed images and the biscuit recipe.

With this campaign, he has achieved that long and complex reports on this art campaign appear in the press to this day in almost annoying frequency when there is even talk of his work somewhere. This fabric is really good: the artist who burns his own pictures comes the common imagination of the tortured, to be pleasantly close to the artistic expression artist, and the campaign itself gives a lot of pictures for a clear reporting.

Only evil tongues claim that Baldessari had made a decision as practical as it is artistically motivated if he got rid of a new living environment of the old ballast shortly before the departure, and remind you that this action had given him a never -time public.

From this time on, the limitation to canvas and color was definitely history, Baldessari worked on the exploration of the different Interrelations between image and communication, made relationship -rich Photo works, designed completely new text-image series and complex videos, every technical innovation was immediately tested and artistically processed.

John Baldessari - an artist for intellectual ...

With this, Baldessari can herald the beginning of an exhibition history, the path of which touches the most important stations of the academically characterized art world several times, be it the museums of the American art world of modernity, be it the documenta in Kassel.

At the beginning of the 1980s, his conquest of the world began over these art centers: Baldessari established his work in the most important strongholds of avant -garde art in the United States - Baldessari was seen in New York, Los Angeles and Houston over 30 times, even more in the rest of the USA, only the conservative Bible Belt was completely. In countless exhibition presences, he honored the European centers of modern art, and there are countless group exhibitions of smaller scenes.

As a result of this omnipresence, Baldessari was happy to receive many honors: for example, the New York Artist Space Exhibition Award (2000), the “Best Show Award” of the AICA (International Association of Art Critics) USA for the 2001/2002 season, about the honorary doctorate of several universities (2009 Lebenswerk) and in 2012 about the coveted emperor of the city of Goslar.

... with humor

Baldessari is fun, and he also enjoys that his imaginative works of art continuously arrived and arrive. In the course of his long career, he also emphasized several times that this fun of art himself was the most important. Already in a work of 1973 he set up the postulate with repeated repeated lettering: "I wants not make anymore boring art" ; On the administrative building of the Biennale in Venice, an impressive remake repeated this statement in capital letters, a confirmation of the insight at that time.

Baldessari has probably never bored a viewer in his career and with no work. He has created numerous photo collages, his so -called billboards , which puzzle the viewer and sometimes delight him. How it did the huge $ 100,000 note, which appeared on an advertising table (a Bill board) next to Manhattan's chic Park, the floating “high line” in 2011.

His art books, video work and performances were always exciting for the viewer and always contained new ideas, within which Baldessari plays with clichés and standardized views, takes standards and common places of everyday world on the shovel and leads the mass media to absurdity.

Baldessari splits and separates and alienates, covered and constructed several layers, he leaves gaps and creates hide -ups, and then combines the whole thing in image and language so original and unusual that new contexts can be recognized. He uses unspeakably many ideas, only one thing the admirer completely misses with him: the holy seriousness of the established concept artist, Baldessari prefers to approach the matter with an ironic smile.

Typical John Baldessari

Typical for John Baldessari is z. B., to photograph human hands, the owners of which point to the heart of things that are important to have these photos painted by Sunday painters and to exhibit the result with the sub -line “an image of (name of the hobby painter)” as art.

What initially appears as a sloping undertaking is an active consideration of the procedure of the art development, with the uncomfortable question behind it, from whom the resulting work of art is actually. Obviously, the exhibited painting itself has only received little touch with the genius of the artist, and that only in the Renaissance's right of the artist to sign his work must also face a Mirrors .

As early as 1969, this last approach occurred to use painting as a medium, making it possible to make the thesis that the break between Baldessari's paintings of the early days and the later photo and video work is less radical than is often assumed.

Only the Action field of Baldessaris will continue to be significantly further on the painting, so he can try to teach a potted plant with a lot of patience and large letters and attempt it, he can throw four balls into the air and make a photo series out of it, and use both to re -question the traditional concept of art.

Of course, Baldessari (with the curious plant) can be seen in the exhibition "Don't Smile", which shows many pages of artistic humors in the Kunsthaus Liechtenstein in January 2013. In the first week of January 2013, 12 metro buses in Los Angeles also recorded their journeys, which were redesigned in the traditional look of old school buses and which Baldessari decorated “Learn to Dream”

On the other hand, “Aprende A Sonar” , the request for dreaming in Spanish, is part of a public campaign on the important priority of art (Baldessari supports non -commercial La Fund for Public Education).

Hopefully the now over 80-year-old artist still has a lot of time to create his art against any kind of overdraft life.