01 Work, The Art Of The Nude, with footnotes # 78

John Baldessari (b. 1931)

Untitled

Oil on Canvas

26 x 22 in

Private collection

John Anthony Baldessari, (born June 17, 1931, National City, California, U.S.), American artist whose work in altered and adjusted photographic imagery and video were central to the development of conceptual art in the United States.

Baldessari received a B.A. at San Diego State College (SDSC; now San Diego State University) in 1953 and attended the University of California at Berkeley and at Los Angeles before receiving a master’s degree from SDSC in 1957. Though he originally intended to be an art critic, he instead became a central figure in the growth of Los Angeles as a major art centre. Baldessari taught at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Valencia from 1970 to 1988. Thereafter he joined the art faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles, where (1996–2007) he taught many students who went on to become successful artists.

Initially Baldessari worked with what has been called the “phototext canvas,” words painted on a canvas. His interest in language-based art led him to create a great variety of works, all in some combination of words, still images, and video. In the 1970s he made several deadpan absurd videos, including, for example, one in which he “sings” several sentences by conceptual artist Sol LeWitt regarding art  and another in which he “teaches a plant the alphabet”. He is perhaps best known for his works juxtaposing found photographs such as film stills, taking them out of their original context and rearranging their articulation and often including words or bits of sentences. His examination of the ambiguities and frailties of photographic communication exposed the range of ways in which photographic images could be organized and “read.” His work both undercut and reinforced the procedures of perception. In the 1980s he became well known for his manipulation of found photographs on which he placed coloured circle stickers over people’s faces. In doing so, he hoped to compel the viewer to consider more carefully the other elements in the image.

In the 21st century Baldessari continues to play with perception with a series titled Noses & Ears, Etc., in which he isolated noses and ears in photographs of people and painted over the rest of the faces with bright colours. Later iterations of the series featured isolated feet, hands, elbows, foreheads, and eyebrows. As did his earlier photocollages, those works challenge the viewer to fill in what was edited out by the artist.. More on John Anthony Baldessari

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