About US-american (photo) artist, John BALDESSARI (b. 1931)
John BALDESSARI is one of the most important representatives of contemporary conceptual and media art. His artistic career began with painting, but in 1970 he burned all of his paintings created between 1953 and 1966 in the sensational Cremation Project; since then he has devoted himself to working with images and languages and the various (inter)relationships between these two forms of expression.
Photography is now an essential part of his art. Through his paintings, photographic works, video performances, collages, cut-ups and his conceptual art, the artist explores the mechanisms of (media) representation. Until 2007, he taught at the California Institute of the Arts and at the University of California, Los Angeles. His works have been shown in more than 120 international solo exhibitions and over 300 group exhibitions. John BALDESSARI lives and works in Santa Monica (USA).
(Photo-)books by, with works by as well as about John BALDESSARI
- 'Music' (2007); 'Miracle Chips' (2009); 'Parse' (2010); 'More Than You Wanted to Know About John Baldessari. Volumes 1 + 2 (2013); 'Ludwig Wittgenstein. Photography as Analytical Practice' (2021).
Awards
- 1996: Oskar Kokoschka Prize
1999: SPECTRUM, International Prize for Photography of the Lower Saxony Foundation
2004: Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2008: Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
2009: Golden Lion of the Venice Art Biennale for lifetime achievement
2012: Goslar Kaiserring
Exhibitions
- 1972: Documenta 5 Kassel in the sections Individual Mythologies: video and Idea + Idea/Light.
1982: Documenta 7 Kassel.
2005: Life's Balance. (1984-2004), Kunsthaus Graz.
2007: Music, Kunstmuseum Bonn.
2007: Eden: Adam and Eve (with Ear and Nose) + Serpent, Portikus, Ff./ Main.
2008: Cavalier Start. 1978-1980. departure into the art of the 80s. Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen (group exhibition).
2009: Pure Beauty, Tate Gallery of Modern Art, London.
2009: BRICK BLDG, LG WINDOWS W/XLENT VIEWS, PARTIALLY FURNISHED, RENOWNED ARCHITECT, Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld
2010: On a beautiful morning in the month of May..., Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen (group exhibition).
2010/2011: Pure Beauty, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
2011: John BALDESSARI. Your Vision in Lights, Temporary Stedelijk, A'dam.
2011: John BALDESSARI. Double Vision, May 36 Gallery, Zurich.
2017/18: Iron Curtain. Graduation, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, Vienna.