cont. JOHN BALDESSARI
My sons favourite piece was The backs of all the trucks passed while driving from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, California, Sunday, 20 January 1963 (1963). I like it too and remember seeing a video remake of the idea by someone a few years ago, where they had video’d every car or truck that they had driven up behind, I seem to remember some kids pulling faces – it was quite good. So now I know where the idea came from.
There are many works that I like, a few of my favourites are:
Tips for artists who want to sell (1966-68), he says that paintings with Bulls and Roosters sell. At some point I might try it, but I’ll have to add ‘after John Baldessari’ which might influence the selling potential for the better and therefore would not be a true indication. I could do the cows and hens that collect dust too and compare my sales;
A painting that is its own documentation (1966-68); This gives me an idea for one of my unresolved works.
Wrong (1966-68) this is my favourite work of the show and I bought a postcard, I also had fun explaining it to my son John….. Baldessari had been looking at art text books explaining the right and the wrong way to compose a picture, He said he often preferred the wrong way;
California Map Project part 1: California (1969) here he went to the place that the letters of California were written on the map, once there he drew the letter in the ground;
Aligning: Balls (1972) this is a series of photographs showing balls thrown into the air, photos are aligned along the level of the balls;
Floating: Color (1972) here he threw large coloured sheets out of a window;
Portrait: Artist’s identity hidden with various hats (1974), My son made me laugh when he said that he hadn’t hidden very well;
