John Baldessari
John Baldessari
(B. 1931, National City, CA.)
John Baldessari is best known for his conceptual works that focus on the processes of choice and selection, and that employ a wide range of what were in the beginning of his career nontraditional mediums: photographs, words, texts. In his wordpaintings from the 1960s, he poses questions about the nature of art – what it is, what it is not, what it looks like, etc. In addition, Baldessari’s status as a teacher in Los Angeles is unparalleled also in relation to his understanding that teaching and making art are directly related in their mutual reliance upon a combination of the visual and the verbal to convey ideas through telling stories.
Education:
1953 B.A., San Diego State College, CA; 1957 M.A., San Diego State College, CA; 1957–59 Otis Art Institute, LA.; Chouinard Art Institute, LA.
First solo show:
1960 Art Center in La Jolla, CA.
First group show:
1957 Art Center in La Jolla, CA.
Recent exhibitions:
2004 Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin; 2005 Kunsthaus Graz, Graz; 2008 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.John Baldessari
