John Baldessari - create and work

John Baldessari – he is one of our most influential artists ever, and has been since the late 1960s.

Perhaps the leading figure of Conceptual Art simply been able to impress the art world for such a long time through his exceptional skill in a wide variety of genres and techniques. Or perhaps we simply appreciate his quirky, ironic style and his uniquely dry, sometimes even absurd, sense of humor. He has certainly demonstrated plenty of these traits throughout his career.

John Baldessari's journey from painter to conceptual artist

Baldessari began his artistic career with painting, but this quickly ceased to satisfy him. He had explored color relationships and soon knew which colors harmonized with each other, and subsequently decided that he was finished with this subject.

He wanted to use color in the future “simply as a signal, like when you come to a traffic light, it’s red and that means: Stop. Not that you sit there, look at the red and say: ‘What a beautiful red.’ It’s simply a signal, in that sense I wanted to use color” (John Baldessari’s retrospective in his speech upon receiving the Golden Lion in Venice in 2009).

This covered the period from 1949 to 1966. Numerous works followed, transcending the boundaries of painting—unusual and often very witty experiments in a thorough engagement with the irony of Marcel Duchamp . Towards the end of the 1960s, he decided on Conceptual Art , which would define his life for the next several years.

This decision was celebrated with a unique happening: in 1970, Baldessari caused quite a stir with his "Cremation Project ," the crucial element of which was the public burning of his existing paintings (at least those still in his possession). The ashes of the paintings were processed into biscuits, which were then placed in an urn that became part of the art installation, along with a bronze plaque bearing the dates of birth and death of the destroyed paintings and the biscuit recipe.

Through this action, he has ensured that, to this day, the press publishes lengthy and complex reports about the art project with almost irritating frequency, especially whenever his work is mentioned. This material is, after all, excellent: the artist who burns his own paintings comes pleasingly close to the common fantasy of the tormented artist struggling for artistic expression, and the action itself provides ample material for vivid reporting.

Only cynics claim that Baldessari made a decision that was as practical as it was artistically motivated when he rid himself of old baggage shortly before embarking on a new life, and point out that this action brought him unprecedented publicity.

From this time on, the limitation to canvas and paint was definitely a thing of the past; Baldessari worked on exploring the various Interrelationships between image and communication, produced relationship-rich Photographic works, created entirely new text-image series and complex videos. Every technical innovation was immediately tested and artistically incorporated.

John Baldessari – an artist for intellectuals…

This allows Baldessari to herald the beginning of an exhibition history whose path repeatedly touches upon what are probably the most important stages of the academically influenced art world, be it in the museums of the American art world of modernism or at the documenta in Kassel.

In the early 1980s, his conquest of the world began via these art centers: Baldessari established his work in the most important strongholds of avant-garde art in the USA – his work was shown over 30 times in New York, Los Angeles, and Houston, and even more frequently in the rest of the USA, completely bypassing only the conservative Bible Belt. He graced the European centers of modern art with countless exhibitions, and many smaller group exhibitions also took place there.

As a result of this omnipresence, Baldessari was able to enjoy 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, honorary doctorates from several universities, the honorary prize of the Venice Biennale (2009, for his life's work) and in 2012 the coveted Kaiserring of the city of Goslar.

… with humor

Baldessari pursues art as a hobby and a source of enjoyment, and he is pleased that his imaginative artworks have consistently been well-received. Throughout his long career, he has repeatedly emphasized that this enjoyment of art itself is paramount to him. As early as 1973, in a work he repeatedly proclaimed: “I Will Not Make Anymore Boring Art” ; an imposing remake of this statement, in capital letters, was displayed on the administrative building of the Venice Biennale in 2009, reaffirming his earlier conviction.

Baldessari has consistently captivated viewers throughout his career and with his work. He has created numerous photo collages, his so-called billboards , which pose puzzles for the viewer and sometimes delight them. Like the giant $100,000 bill that appeared on a billboard next to Manhattan's most stylish park, the suspended High Line, in 2011.

His art books, video works and performances were always exciting for the viewer and always contained new ideas, within which Baldessari plays with clichés and standardized ways of looking at things, mocks standards and commonplaces of everyday life and takes the mass media to absurd extremes.

Baldessari divides, separates, and alienates; he veils and constructs multiple layers, leaving gaps and creating obscurations, and then combines the whole in image and language so originally and unconventionally that new connections of meaning can be recognized. He employs an innumerable number of ideas, but one thing the admirer completely misses in him: the solemnity of the established conceptual artist. Baldessari prefers to approach his work with an ironic smile.

Typical John Baldessari

A typical example of John Baldessari's work is to photograph human hands whose owners are pointing to things of utmost importance, then have these photos copied by Sunday painters and exhibit the result as art with the caption "A picture by (name of the amateur painter)".

What initially appears to be an odd undertaking, upon closer inspection reveals itself to be an active examination of the process of art creation, with the uncomfortable question underlying it: whose is the resulting artwork, really? Clearly, the exhibited painting itself has had little contact with the artist's genius. The artist's right to sign their work, only won in the Renaissance, must also be confronted with a reflection of this.

As early as 1969, this final approach to using painting as a medium was made possible, thus suggesting that the break between Baldessari's early paintings and his later photo and video works is less radical than is often assumed.

Baldessari's sphere of activity expands considerably with his departure from painting. He can, for example, patiently attempt to teach a potted plant the alphabet using large letters and document this experiment; he can throw four balls into the air and create a photo series from them, using both to ironically question traditional concept of art

Naturally, Baldessari (with the inquisitive plant) is featured in the exhibition “Don’t Smile,” which showcased many facets of artistic humor at the Kunsthaus Liechtenstein in January 2013. Also in the first week of January 2013, 12 Metro buses in Los Angeles began operating, restored to the traditional look of old school buses, with Baldessari adorning one side with the words “Learned to dream. ”

On the other side is “Aprende a sonar ,” the Spanish phrase for “Learn to dream.” The action is part of a public campaign about the importance of art (Baldessari supports the non-profit LA Fund for Public Education).

Hopefully, the artist, who is now over 80 years old, will still have plenty of time to create his art against any kind of weariness of life.