Description

John Baldessari (1931) was a leading exponent 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—in which he burned all the paintings he had created between 1953 and 1966—his work has revolved around the relationship between language and image as forms of expression. Through painting, photography, film/video, collage, and reliefs, Baldessari explored the mechanisms of media representation, as well as the very nature of artistic work. Early on, he began incorporating images and texts from advertising and film into his works, creating a vast archive of film stills, promotional photographs, and press clippings. This visual material is contrasted, cropped, and processed into multiple variations and visual realizations. From 1980 onward, the artist worked mostly without text in series of photographs and images, maintaining his interest in the conflicts and constructions of narrative content. Throughout his work, overpainting, voids, absences, and omitted information increasingly assumed the function of language evoked in the viewer.

For this book, John Baldessari developed a sequence of incomplete, cropped, and enigmatic images that leads to a construction of meanings and stories. We move through pages of B-movie fragments—arranged by the artist in suggestive compositions—to a second chapter with “complete” images. By playing with themes such as composition, omission, and the creation of rhythm through fragmented visual information, Baldessari alludes to how information is generally handled and constructed in this original artist's book.

Limited edition.

Author
John Baldessari

Technical specifications
Edited by: JRP|Ringier
Year: 2009
Type: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Dimensions: 25 x 33 cm
Weight: 2 kg
Language: English
Pages: 240
ISBN: 978-3-03764-117-0