JOHN BALDESSARI

The history delineated by over forty years of exhibition posters reveals a trajectory that mirrors the progression of Baldessari’s own work. The seemlessness between Baldessari’s work and posters also demonstrates the artist’s belief in the fluidity of images. Baldessari recognizes the potency of images, yet resists treating them as overly precious through his collaging, manipulation, and reuse of them. While there is a clear evolution in Baldessari’s graphics over the four decades of posters, a sense of joy persists, particularly in the posters where Baldessari himself makes an appearance. The humor in Baldessari’s posters is the result of the artist’s constant curiosity and refusal to take even the most mundane of observations for granted. As the artist states:

”...the thing is, I never try to be funny. It’s just a certain way of looking at things. Or trying not to ignore things.”

“Not Prints: Posters 1996-2010” is a continuation of 1301PE’s ongoing interest in posters, prints, and editions. In the tradition of 1301PE’s previous poster exhibition, the critically acclaimed “Together Again Like Never Before: The Complete Poster Work of Michael Asher and Martin Kippenberger,” this important exhibition foregrounds the role of posters in Baldessari’s practice.

Baldessari’s major retrospective, Pure Beauty, opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in October 2010. It originated at the Tate Modern in October 2009 and has traveled to the Museu d’Art Contemporani in Barcelona and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles. Baldessari was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2008 Venice Biennale.