BALDESSARI, John - Miracle Chips

As originally sealed copy!

Personal statement by John BALDESSARI

'It was almost like seeing the Virgin Mary in a tortilla.' Next came a series of noses and ears set gaily on colorful, flat, somewhat lumpy, rounded shapes: Faces.' (freely translated, John BALDESSARI)

Background information

"It all started many years ago with an innocent interest in the way people anthropomorphize. Animals, objects, almost anything, can be given human characteristics. John BALDESSARI, following his curiosity, soon enough made his own pictures of objects with barely perceptible human features. Maybe they would be discovered, maybe not.
To John BALDESSARI's surprise and our amusement, he recently looked at these mustard and cobalt colored facial forms that populate his studio and came to a decisive conclusion: potato chips! These faces are potato chips! Suddenly he had a stack of chips with the full faces just visible pointed at us, only to issue a good-hearted warning: These really are too perfect. Life is not perfect. Potato chips break, pieces break off. Think of Venus de Milo and I think you'll know where I'm going with this book. And look, I also have a title ... And that's how 'Miracle Chips' by John BALDESSARI gradually made its way into the world." (© Steidl Verlag, 2009)

About the US-American (photo-)artist John BALDESSARI (b. 1931)

(Photo) books by and about John BALDESSARI