Tuesday 2 February 2010

John Baldessari


Another exhibition which was very inspirational was “Pure Beauty” by John Baldessari at the Tate Modern which closed on 10th January this year. 

Baldessari was born in 1931 and currently resides in Los Angeles. He is possibly one of the most important conceptual artists of our time, producing extraordinary work during the sixties and notably releasing a statement in a newspaper that he was to cremate all his artworks made between 1953-1966. Baldessari later went on to use found objects, film stills and photography to create some of the most recognised and celebrated photo-compositions.

This exhibition was incredible and of great interest to my practice, the blocking off, obscuring of subject matter with paint was very inspiring, providing invaluable research into one of pioneers of conceptual art. The films, sketches and text made me want to start experimenting more conceptually than ever before.

This exhibition at the Tate had been wonderfully curated and I thank them for showing the public how important conceptual art is, and hopefully will always be.

Images from top to bottom, Blockage (Yellow): With Tent and Sword Fight (Green) 2005
Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Hitch-hiker (Splattered Blue) 1995
Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York © John Baldessari

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