Biography

John Baldessari
(Born 1931)

John Baldessari was born in National City, California in 1931. He graduated from the San Diego State College in 1957 and began developing a highly experimental style, in which he used text and photographic images to explore the meaning of traditional representation and language. Baldessari has taught since the early 70’s and his oeuvre–which spans multiple mediums such as painting, photography, installation and film–has been highly influential for future generations of conceptual artists. Baldessari’s challenge to the traditional role of art and its different mediums, as well as the role of the artist is frequently made through visually interesting, suggestive and humorous arrangements of letters, images, spaces and absences that interact to convey a powerful meaning. This challenge to traditional artistic representation is further enhanced by the inclusion of pop imagery in his works–a practice also maintained by some of his predecessors like Marcel Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol.

John Baldessari has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Recent solo exhibitions of his work have been held in institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2010 and the Tate Modern in London in 2009, the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht in 2008, and the Kunstmuseum Bonn in 2007. He has also participated in exhibitions in major institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Pinakothek der Moderne, Sammlung Moderne Kunst in Munich. Baldessari has also participated in two Venice Biennales and seven Whitney Biennials, and his work has been featured in multiple publications. John Baldessari lives and works in Santa Monica, California.