John Baldessari

John Baldessari

Born. 1931
Lives in Santa Monica, California, works in Venice, California.

John Baldessari was born in National City, California. He attended San Diego State University and did post-graduate work at Otis Art Institute, Chouinard Art Institute and the University of California at Berkeley. He taught at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA from 1970 - 1988 and the University of California at Los Angeles from 1996 - 2007.

Baldessari's artwork has been featured in more than 200 solo exhibitions and in over 1000 group exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe. His projects include artist books, videos, films, billboards and public works. His awards and honors include memberships in the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Americans for the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, the BACA International 2008, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, awarded by La Biennale di Venezia and the City of Goslar Kaiserring in 2012. He has received honorary degrees from the National University of Ireland, San Diego State University, Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design, and California College of the Arts.

http://www.baldessari.org/summary.htm

http://stlouisan.com/2013/03/john-baldesari/

Baldessari’s work almost mocks us with its ability to dramatically change the character of an image with only a few simple alterations. His combination of bright solid colors on large areas of black pulls in your attention. The individual shapes of color provide a feast for your eyes and there is always more see and discover. By integrating photography into the mix, he dismisses the playful aura emitted from the bright colors and creates almost a dark humor. His figures are reduced to manikins; their defining characteristics are striped away.

Baldessari’s work relates very well to my 2D course because he experiments with preexisting imagery and creates entirely new and exciting interpretations through a few simple changes.