MODERNA MUSEET: JOHN BALDESSARI

MODERNA MUSEET: JOHN BALDESSARI

HIGHLIGHT

For over five decades, John Baldessari (1931–2020) probed the relationship between image and text and what arises when the two are brought together.

Link: A Brief History of John Baldessari

In early January, it was sadly reported that the American artist John Baldessari had died at the age of 88. Moderna Museet has long been planning an exhibition spanning Baldessari’s entire career, and on March 21 a presentation of some thirty works opened in Stockholm. John Baldessari’s influence on the art world extends over decades and generations, and the exhibition at Moderna Museet will be the first in Sweden to present his art on a greater scale. For over five decades, John Baldessari (1931–2020) probed the relationship between image and text and what arises when the two are brought together.

John Baldessari, Palm tree/Seascape, 2010 © The Estate of John Baldessari |

Courtesy the Estate of John Baldessari and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York

Baldessari was born in National City, California, a city located fifteen minutes from the Mexican border. His parents were both immigrants to the USA – his mother from Denmark and his father from Austria. John Baldessari studied to be a teacher and taught art at schools around San Diego before being invited to teach at the newly founded art academy CalArts outside Los Angeles in 1970. In his professional role as teacher, Baldessari had an impact on several generations of artists, and former students includes artists like Mike Kelley, David Salle and Tony Oursler.

John Baldessari, Installation view, 2020 | Photo: Åsa Lundén/Moderna Museet

By the mid-1960s, John Baldessari had come to realize that a photographic image or written text could better express his artistic intentions than a representational painting, and his artistic practice developed in a new direction. John Baldessari worked ceaselessly in his investigation of what art is.

John Baldessari, I Am Making Art, 1971 © The Estate of John Baldessari |

Courtesy the Estate of John Baldessari and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York / Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI)

Courtesy the Estate of John Baldessari and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York

John Baldessari has had over two hundred solo exhibitions since his debut in 1960 and participated in some thousand group exhibitions worldwide. The exhibition at Moderna Museet is the first in Sweden to present his body of work on a large scale and includes some 30 works from different chapters of his long and extensive career. Baldessari has received a number of awards, including the National Medal of Arts (2014), a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale (2009), the Archives of American Art Medal (2007), and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Americans for the Arts (2005).

“John Baldessari has been of immense importance to Conceptual Art” – says Matilda Olof-Ors, the exhibition’s curator. “With an underlying streak of humor and irony, he time and again challenged the prevailing norms and notions of what art is“. The exhibition is supported by Morgan Stanley.