John Baldessari: Conceptual Art by Gwen Franklin

Beast Being Stared At:With Two Figures, 2004
Beast Being Stared At:With Two Figures, 2004

John_Baldessari5john-baldessari-two-unfinished-lettersjohn-baldessari-stonehenge-with-two-persons-blue-2005-mixographia-print-on-handmade-paper1john-baldessari2

Double Feature- Sprueth Magers
Double Feature- Sprueth Magers
Umbrella (Orange) With Figure and Ball
Umbrella (Orange) With Figure and Ball

 

Tiger (Orange) and Trainer: With Three Figures (Red, Yellow, Blue),   2004, ©John Baldessari
Tiger (Orange) and Trainer: With Three Figures (Red, Yellow, Blue),
2004, ©John Baldessari

John Baldessari is a conceptual artist, which means he focuses on the idea that his works present rather then the work itself. He attended college at San Diego State, among others and began his career by using gestures, then phototext canvas, or words on a canvas and became involved in the growth of Los Angeles’ major art centre. He works with altered photographs and video to create his bold works. Baldessari, at one point, grew tired of looking at the faces of those in his photographs so he collected price tag stickers and covered their faces. He wants the onlooker to focus on what is actually going on in the photograph, and feels that humans are so naturally drawn to the faces that it takes away from the message the photograph is trying to convey. So I believe that the most prominent and bold features of the photograph are blurred, not always just the faces. This forces the onlooker to see what the message really is. It is said that he knows very little about style, which seems obvious when one sees that he never coordinates colors and many of his photographs are not too aesthetically pleasing. Still, though, they are oddly interesting. The boldness of the colors chosen draw the onlooker in, while the solid color over what would have been a more interesting object makes the onlooker see a message that goes deeper than the superficial beauty of the models in the photograph. I have, however, seen and exception to Baldessari’s dislike of looking at the model’s faces. Sometimes he leaves one face uncovered to show the facial expressions, which help to further convey a message. john baldessari 4

Leave a Reply