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| John Baldessari's "Palm Tree/Seascape" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art© John Baldessari, photograph © The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
John Baldessari exhibit "Pure Beauty" was at the LACMA when I was visiting in August which I didn't get a chance to see but made a note to self to catch in New York. It was the realization that I was going to miss it once again that prompted me to drop everything and run to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, last week, four days before it closed.
It was such a groundbreaking experience for me as a student of Art, that I wish I had the chance to tell all my friends and take my kids to see it. Unfortunately, it closed yesterday but I still want to share the experience with everyone. I put up the link for the Met Audio Guide (you can download it by clicking on the title of this post or http://www.metmuseum.org/audio/exhibitions/AudioGuide_Baldessari.zip) the numbers for some of the works are underneath them so those who are interested can take the tour right here and now...
There is also a link to an interactive artwork -'JOHN BALDESSARI - in still life 2001-2010' which lets you recreate the 17th century Dutch painting below anyway you like. It is extremely cool...
WHAT IS IT THAT DISTINGUISHES ART FROM REAL LIFE???
John Baldessari's retrospective 'Pure Beauty' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, asks this question and forces the viewer to contemplate the answer repeatedly...
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| John Baldessari (American, b. 1931) Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell, 1966–1968 Acrylic on canvas; 68 x 56 1/2 in. (172.7 x 143.5 cm) The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica © John Baldessari |
His quirky sense of humor is ever-present in all of his works.
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| John Baldessari, 'The backs of all the trucks passed while driving from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, California, Sunday 29, January 1963" photography, 1963. © John Baldessari |
According the Met Audio-Guide here Baldessari is utilizing the mundane without elevating it to 'High Art' status in an attempt to construct meaning from the ground up. (Met Audio-Guide 401)
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| John Baldessari (American, b. 1931) Commissioned Painting: A Painting by Elmira Bourke, 1969 Acrylic and oil on canvas; 59 1/4 x 45 1/2 in. (150.5 x 115.6 cm) Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris © John Baldessari |
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| John Baldessari (American, b. 1931) Commissioned Painting: A Painting by Anita Storck, 1969 Acrylic and oil on canvas; 59 1/4 x 45 1/2 in. (150.5 x 115.6 cm) Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris © John Baldessari |
"Is style really important or is it the idea behind the art?"
These are two of the three artworks on display commissioned by Baldessari from contemporary artists of paintings of photographs he had taken of his friends pointing at an object of their choice, the title was added later by a sign painter... (Met Audio-Guide 406)
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| John Baldessari (American, b. 1931) California Map Project, 1969 © John Baldessari |
'Making Art that existed out in the world'
Baldessari took a map of California and drove around the state to find the literal places where the letters fell on the map.
"mistaking the map for the territory... in treating the letters on the map like real places, Baldessari deliberately makes this mistake"(Met Audio-Guide 408)
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| John Baldessari (American, b. 1931) I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art, 1971 Black-and-white video with sound, 13:06 min The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, 2010 (2010.262) © John Baldessari |
The Artist turns the typical school boy's boring punishment for bad behavior of repetition into a pledge of not producing 'boring art' (Met Audio-Guide 413)
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| John Baldessari (American, b. 1931) Virtues and Vices (for Giotto), 1981 © John Baldessari Hope, Prudence, Temperance, Sloth, Gluttony, Avarice |
Baldessari originally hung these photographic images matched with the seven virtues and vices in a chapel-like alcove and dedicated them to Giotto recalling his frescoes from the Arena Chapel. (Met Audio-Guide 420)
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| John Baldessari (American, b. 1931) Lizard to Pianist (with Gold Sphere), 1984 Gelatin silver prints and color photographs on board © John Baldessari |
Title is telling us how to look at the work...Building the work up in almost an architectural manner (Met Audio-Guide 421)
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| John Baldessari (American, b. 1931) Kiss / Panic, 1984 Gelatin silver prints with oil tint on board, in eleven parts; 80 x 72 in. (203.2 x 182.9 cm) overall Glenstone © John Baldessari |
At the time Baldessari made this work, he was becoming interested in Freud and began to think of his collection of film stills as a collective unconcious...(Met Audio-Guide 422)
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| John Baldessari (American, b. 1931) Heel, 1986 Gelatin silver prints with oil tint, oil stick, and acrylic; 106 1/2 x 86 15/16 in. (270.5 x 220.9 cm) overall Los Angeles County Museum of Art Modern and Contemporary Art Council Fund © John Baldessari |
Is the title referring the the body part or the character of the man in the picture or the command being given to the dog?
"One of the hallmarks of my work have always been omitting information and deleting it, that might be very necessary to understand the image... but, thinking that what you leave out the spectator with their imagination could replace" John Baldessari (Met Audio-Guide 423)
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| John Baldessari (American, b. 1931) The Overlap Series: Jogger (with Cosmic Event), 2000–2001 Lambda prints on Sintra with acrylic and crayon; 84 x 43 3/4 in. (213.4 x 111.1 cm) overall Jennifer B. Stockman © John Baldessari |
On the one side it is a snapshot of a street scene outside of his studio, on the other it is a scene out of a movie that is constructed out of someone's imagination and in the middle where they overlap -Baldessari painted to change the surface because he is against categories...(Met Audio-Guide 424)
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| John Baldessari (American, b. 1931) The Duress Series: Person Climbing Exterior Wall of Tall Building / Person on Ledge of Tall Building / Person on Girders of Unfinished Tall Building, 2003 Digital prints with acrylic on Sintra; 60 x 180 in. (152.4 x 457.2 cm) overall Ringier Collection, Switzerland © John Baldessari |
The figure which is basically a plastic raised or recessed silhouette, is optically and literally popping out of the picture because it is simplified and painted flat in the three primary colors...(Met Audio-Guide 425)
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| John Baldessari(American, b. 1931), Prima Facie (Third State): From Aghast to Upset, 2005.© John Baldessari |
Prima Facie - How things appear on the surface upon first glance...(Met Audio-Guide 427)
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| John Baldessari (American, b. 1931) Prima Facie (Fifth State): Warm Brownie / American Cheese / Carrot Stick / Black Bean Soup / Perky Peach / Leek, 2006 Pigment prints on canvas with latex paint; 92 in. x 9 ft. 6 in. (233.7 x 289.6 cm) overall Glenstone © John Baldessari |
How we attribute meaning to color... (Met Audio-Guide 428)
The strange yet alluring juxtapositions, oscillation of words and images, the sharp sense of humor, the artist's intentions and my own interpretations of the works was very inspiring and exhilarating ... Baldessari's statement of 'looking at art as a form of life, a process of seeing possibilities and making new meanings' resonated within me, motivating me to new heights.
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