John Baldessari

1931–2020

One of the most notable figures of West Coast conceptual art and an influential teacher, John Baldessari began moving beyond traditional artistic forms in the mid-1960s. His inventive, irreverent art of the past fifty years encompasses painting, photography, prints, film, video, installation, and sculpture. Baldessari’s use of found and appropriated imagery has raised important questions about what constitutes authority or authorship; where the boundaries between different mediums lie; what relationships exist between words and pictures; and how images accrue meaning differently depending on context.

This work is one in a series that pairs casual snapshots Baldessari took around the San Diego area with didactic texts and formulaic advice excerpted from art theory or how-to books. The idea of artistic skill and originality is challenged in multiple ways. Baldessari hired a professional sign painter to letter the texts in a nondescript typeface—thus absenting his hand from the creative process— and chose purposefully “bad” images that betray conventions of photography. The traditional hierarchy of mediums, especially the presumed superiority of painting to photography, is no less sacred: by printing his snapshot directly onto an emulsion- coated canvas, Baldessari uses a photographic technique to create a painting. With his signature humor and irony, this work renders Baldessari the “slavish announcer” described in the caption.

Wikipedia entry

Introduction

John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020) was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California.

Initially a painter, Baldessari began to incorporate texts and photography into his canvases in the mid-1960s. In 1970, he began working in printmaking, film, video, installation, sculpture and photography. He created thousands of works which demonstrate—and, in many cases, combine—the narrative potential of images and the associative power of language within the boundaries of the work of art. His art has been featured in more than 200 solo exhibitions in the United States and Europe. His work influenced that of Cindy Sherman, David Salle, Annette Lemieux, and Barbara Kruger among others.

Wikidata identifier

Q683378

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Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed June 25, 2025.

Getty record

Introduction

Influential conceptual artist who is considered one of those that transformed Los Angeles into a contemporary art center through his work and decades of teaching there, at California Institute of the Arts from 1970 to 1988 and at the University of California, Los Angeles, from 1996 to 2005.

Country of birth

United States

Roles

Artist, conceptual artist, installation artist, painter, photographer, sculptor, teacher, video artist

ULAN identifier

500098854

Names

John Baldessari, John Anthony Baldessari

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Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed June 25, 2025.

Not on view

First acquired
1983

Date of birth
June 17, 1931

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