John Baldessari (1931–2020)

The 2009 issue of the annual Ringier Report with artwork by John Baldessari. Includes an about the artist section by Beatrix Ruf. "Beatrix Ruf, Curator of the Ringier Collection and Director of the Kunsthalle in Zurich, writes about the artist: 'John Baldessari juggles with themes of composition, omission and rhythmicity. Through the sequence of pages of the annual report, the reader may form an overall impression, while at the same time examining his own memories and preconceptions. Using fragmented visual information, Baldessari creates references to the way in which information and its construction is generally handled. And he does so in the annual report of a media corporation which itself deals on a daily basis with the evocation, recollection and manipulability of images'. Michael Ringier himself justifies the choice of the artist in these terms: 'Our journalists may wholeheartedly embrace John Baldessari as their role model'. After all, one of his most familiar works is entitled: 'I will not make any more boring art'. Michael Ringier smiles: 'What applies for Baldessari's art should also be the golden rule for our journalists in every country'."… (more)

The American artist John Baldessari rose to prominence in the late 1960s, combining Pop art's use of mass media imagery with Conceptual art's use of language to create a unique body of work that has become a hallmark of postmodern art. Early in his career, Baldessari began incorporating images and text utilized by the advertising and movie industries into his photo-based art. He appropriated pictures and movie stills, juxtaposing, editing and cropping them in conjunction with written texts. The resulting montage of photography and language often counters the narrative associations suggested by the isolated scenes and offers a greater plurality of meanings. The layered, often humorous compositions carry disparate connotations, underscoring how relative meaning can be. Throughout his long and celebrated career, Baldessari has continued to play with and critique popular culture, and over time he has increased the scale and visual impact of his work. This publication looks at new works Baldessari created on commission for the Deutsche Guggenheim.… (more)