JOHN BALDESSARI

John Baldessari(1931-2020) is a towering figure in American conceptual art who questioned the relationship between the image and the text by recontextualizing and intentionally clashing found images from movie stills, billboards, photographs, and classical paintings with undecipherable texts. In the Cremation Project from 1970, Baldessari burned his own artworks produced since 1953 to 1966 to break with tradition. From then on, the artist experimented with diverse mediums including painting, sculpture, photography, film, and installation work. Baldessari focued fostering the next generation of artists during his professorship at the California Institute of the Arts and UCLA and has caused a great influence on artists such as Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, and David Salle. His awards and honors include the 2009 Venice Biennale Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement and the 2014 National Medal of Arts Award. He has held more than 300 solo shows and participated in more than 1,000 group exhibitions. His works are included in the collections of world-renowned institutions including the Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, USA), and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington D.C., USA).