[No.6] Here is a JOHN BALDESSARI's research report

"NO MORE BORING ART!"
 

Here is me writing about John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020). Baldessari was born in National City, California, and he lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California. He was an artist worked in diverse media formats: he explored the idea of mixing text and image to create meaning. Started from 1970, he had been working in film, video, installation, sculpture, printmaking and photography.

"He created thousands of works which demonstrate—and, in many cases, combine—the narrative potential of images and the associative power of language within the boundaries of the work of art " 

John Baldessari's Pencil Story

Over the years, his work has consistently been seen as more playful than analytic, the pure visual pleasant of viewing his artwork is a new type of enjoyment in fine art in 1970s. When did he starts everything and how can he come up with ideas like this?

"Born in 1931 in National City, California—which had absolutely no art scene to speak of—he first began by creating text works, which were simply words painted onto canvas. He started with hand-painted, rhetorical phrases, such as Suppose it is true after all? WHAT THEN? (1967), but what a young Baldessari was trying to achieve was to objectify language itself. It therefore made sense to print the words rather than to paint them, removing his hand entirely. A TWO-DIMENSIONAL SURFACE WITHOUT ANY ARTICULATION IS A DEAD EXPERIENCE (1967) was the resulting work, and set Baldessari on a path conceptual humor he would pursue throughout his career" (  Amah-Rose Abrams).

Suppose it is true after all? WHAT THEN? (1967)

A TWO-DIMENSIONAL SURFACE WITHOUT ANY ARTICULATION IS A DEAD EXPERIENCE (1967)

John Baldessari is using art as a platform to express his thoughts which might be too flat to only speak out by spoken language. The whole idea of using text as a way to transit information is related to Baudrillard’s Simulations. Every moment when we are THINKING about something, the SIMULATION of thoughts is generating. 

"..genetic miniaturisation is the dimension of simulation" (3).

Later on in 1971, Baldessari made his first print which he keep writing the phrase "I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art" over and over until the tape ran out. Which is quite contradictory for me because the way he emphasis it is repetitive and kinda "boring" in a way for the viewer. However, as mentioned above, once we start to consciously thinking about something, the genetic concept become everything but boring. The idea of "Boring" itself is hard to define since everything exist for a meaning.

I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art (1971)

 "COOL"

"FUNNY"

"CEREBRAL"

"SARDONIC"

.....?

I throw one of my photos with friends into Photoshop to recreate a pic which reference Baldessari's later art style. I don't know how provocative it could be but the idea of covering people's face with a simple dot itself is trying to conceal the fact that there is none, but none could also be anything. 

Jamie and friends in Washington DC (x (2019)

Here is a brief documentary about John Baldessari narrated by Tom Waits:

references resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Baldessari#Early_text_paintings
https://eastofborneo.org/articles/john-baldessari-cut-to-the-chase/

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/need-know-john-baldessari-392685

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU7V4GyEuXA&t=218s