John Baldessari

 
John Baldessari (1931-2020) is a key proponent of Conceptual art and one of the most important figures in contemporary art of the last forty years. Since his sensational "Cremation Project" in 1970, which involved burning all the paintings he had made between 1953 and 1966, his work has revolved around the relationships between language and image as forms of expression. In his painting, photography, film/video, collage, and reliefs, Baldessari has explored the mechanisms of media representation, as well as the subject of artistic work itself. Early on, Baldessari began integrating images and text from advertising and movies into his works and building up a large archive of film stills, publicity, and press photographs. This image material is then contrasted, cropped, and processed in numerous variations and visual realizations. From 1980, the artist worked mostly without text in series of photographs and pictures, while continuing to deal with conflicts and constructions of narrative content. Over the course of his oeuvre, overpainting, voids, gaps, and withheld information increasingly take on the function of the language evoked within the viewer.

(external link : www.baldessari.org)
 
John Baldessari - Learning To Read with John Baldessari
2017
English edition
JRP|Editions - Monographs
sold out
A portrait of the artist as an inspiring teacher: this publication focuses on Baldessari's practice at the intersection between pedagogy and art. Visually organized in alphabetical order, Learning To Read features essays, artworks, a chronology, and personal insights on Baldessari's teaching and influence by a group of the artist's former students and CalArts collaborators such as Ashley Bickerton, Liz Craft, Meg Cranston, Matt Mullican, and Tony Oursler.
John Baldessari - More Than You Wanted to Know About John Baldessari (vol. 1)
2013
English edition
Les presses du réel – Artists' Writings – Documents
JRP|Editions - Documents (co-edition Les presses du réel)
This first volume of complete John Baldessari's writings traces the genesis and development of the artist's understanding of art in the early 1960s.
John Baldessari - More Than You Wanted to Know About John Baldessari (vol. 2)
2013
English edition
Les presses du réel – Artists' Writings – Documents
JRP|Editions - Documents (co-edition Les presses du réel)
This second volume of complete John Baldessari's writings traces the genesis and development of the artist's understanding of art in the early 1960s through to the present.
John Baldessari - Initiales - Initiales J.B.
2013
French edition
Initiales
ENSBA Lyon (Lyon National School of Art)
Issue dedicated to John Baldessari.
John Baldessari - PA
2012
English edition
miscellaneous
JRP|Editions - Artists' books & editions
Artists' book.
John Baldessari - Parse
2010
English edition
JRP|Editions - Artists' books & editions
The poetic of the fragment (artist's book).
John Baldessari - Films transferred to Video (DVD)
2006
JRP|Editions - Bureau des Videos (DVD)
sold out
Baldessari's cinema works on DVD.


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