Talk by Stephen Clarke

John Baldessari at the Tate Modern

Pure Beauty

Active Artist for 50 years

Based in Los Angeles since 1960s

one of the most influential artist of his generation

Pioneer of conceptual art

Text and Image art combined

California

He has problems with being categorized or pinned down to a place

California Map Project Part 1, 1969

Artists shouldn’t be labelled on where they come from.

Mexico Boundary Project (detail) 1969

Very successful in New York and Europe

But recognition was slow in California

Artist in California stay there and don’t take there work to other places (stuck in a rut)

Text Work

Tips for an Artist to Sell, 1966-68

Acceptance - important for the sale of art work

The place where you live might not support you as an artist.

He’s not a Californian artist, his work is not about California but he is based in California.

He called him self an Abstract Expressionist but his work does not represent this but he does talk about it in his work.

Artists can be identified in many ways for example age, location, gender etc.

Painting of the rules of painting.

Clement Greenberg, 1966

Could be a minimalist or a Pop Artist

Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles 1960. The Place to be and show your work in California

Ed Ruscha - Standard, Amarillo, Texas, 1962

Baldessari - Econ - o - Wash, 14th and Highland, National, 1966

His studio was an old cinema

He cremated the work because he couldnt sell it then he put the ashes in little boxes which then became pieces of art.

Takes place at the rise of conceptual art

de materialization of the art object and to some extent the artist

Marcel Duchamp had his first Retrospective

A Painting by Dante Guido, 1969

A Painting by Helen Morris, 1969

Who’s is the art - his for the idea or the person who painted it?

Joseph Kosuth - Main figure in conceptual art practically wrote the manifesto

Titled (Art as Idea as Idea), 1967

John Baldessari - I will not Make any more Boring Art, 1971

Works from photos and records with photos

I am Making Art, 1971

Mixing up Painting and Photography

Wrong, 1966-68

Photography and text mixed together became essential in his work.

Teaching - He became an art teacher to make a living even tho he doesn't enjoy it at first, but he decided to use it to his benefit and makes work on it.

CALARTs - Institute of Arts set up by disney in California. Film School

His influence comes from his students

He then starts to work with film and film stills

Script, 1974

People read from the same script he then looked at how different people interpreted it differently.

Brutus killed Caesar, 1976

Sequence

Photo comparison becomes his unique style

His main work comes when he is in his 50s

Cindy Sherman

Appropriation

Embed Series - Ice Cubes - U BUY BAL DES SARI, 1974

Craig Owens - Art critic who explores the relationship between the artist and the gallery and asks who is responsible for the meaning of the works.