John Baldessari
28 Apr - 24 Jun 2006
JOHN BALDESSARI
Prima Facie (Fifth State)
April 28 - June 24, 2006
John Baldessari holds a truly influential and pioneering position in contemporary art. He rose to prominence in the late 1960s and set about re-positioning art, particularly painterly abstraction by adopting appropriated imagery from the mass media with linguistic investigations on canvas.
Sprüth Magers Lee is delighted to present Prima Facie (Fifth State), the concluding body of work from the Prima Facie series. This will be John Baldessari's first UK exhibition in a commercial gallery in over a decade.
Prima Facie (Fifth State) is the culmination of Baldessari's most recent investigations. The series has been developed and exhibited in varying stages with text, image and colour playing greater or lesser parts. Characteristic within each series is Baldessari's economy of means and distillation of key linguistic ideas paired with appropriated images of human faces. Prima Facie (Fifth State) makes a marked shift in the series with the introduction of the names of the paint that Baldessari employs in his work.
The exhibition title, Prima Facie is Latin for 'at first sight' and draws attention to the overriding impulse to construct meaning. By using absurd conjunctions such as 'marshmallow bunny,' 'far from shy,' 'pool party,' or 'pure joy' Baldessari focuses on the similarities between the constructs of language, colour and facial expressions and the resulting emergence of meaning. Apparently arbitrary relationships between image, text and colour are established through Baldessari's manipulations. The disparities between the text, image and colour compositions elicit a range of meanings that reject a fixed definition. This plurality of meaning is underpinned by a structuralist attitude; an idea that was expounded upon by linguistic theorists such as Ferdinand de Saussure and favours the coexistence of many meanings as opposed to an authoritative interpretation. In an inventive way Prima Facie (Fifth State) demonstrates the cultural, psychological and symbolic interpretations that are inherent in our perception of colour, language and facial expression.
John Baldessari has played a pivotal role in conceptual art, his subtle irony and attitude towards the rigorous intellectualism of conceptual art have become central ideas both historically and currently in artistic practice. Baldessari's unique oeuvre provides works of visual intrigue that lie between a hybrid of painting and photography. His lexicon of images and texts incorporate elements such as chance and coincidence of the most disconcertingly pleasurable variety. Crucial to Baldessari is the understated wit and lightness of touch present in his work. He has consistently questioned artistic developments, producing conceptually reflexive works that force viewers to search for their own meanings within the works.
The new artist's book Marilyn's Dress (2006) published by Walther König will be available at Sprüth Magers Lee in early May.
John Baldessari was born in National City, California in 1931, and has lived in Santa Monica since 1970. His remarkable decades-long tenure as a teacher at the California Institute of the Arts has influenced several generations of artists. His work has been featured in more than 120 solo exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe and in over 300 group exhibitions. In 2006 he will collaborate with the Kunst Museum Bonn and Bonner Kunstverein, Germany, for an exhibition celebrating musical connections within his work. In 2005 a two-part retrospective of his work took place at the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien and the Kunsthaus Graz in Austria and the Museé d'Art Contemporain, Nimes. Somewhere Between Almost Right and Not Quite (with Orange) took place at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin in 2004/2005. Other recent solo exhibitions were held at Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik (2001), the Sprengel Museum, Hannover, and the Staatliche Kunstammlungen Dresden (1999); the Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Roverto, Trento, Italy (2000-01); and at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich and the Witte de With, Rotterdam (1998).
Prima Facie (Fifth State)
April 28 - June 24, 2006
John Baldessari holds a truly influential and pioneering position in contemporary art. He rose to prominence in the late 1960s and set about re-positioning art, particularly painterly abstraction by adopting appropriated imagery from the mass media with linguistic investigations on canvas.
Sprüth Magers Lee is delighted to present Prima Facie (Fifth State), the concluding body of work from the Prima Facie series. This will be John Baldessari's first UK exhibition in a commercial gallery in over a decade.
Prima Facie (Fifth State) is the culmination of Baldessari's most recent investigations. The series has been developed and exhibited in varying stages with text, image and colour playing greater or lesser parts. Characteristic within each series is Baldessari's economy of means and distillation of key linguistic ideas paired with appropriated images of human faces. Prima Facie (Fifth State) makes a marked shift in the series with the introduction of the names of the paint that Baldessari employs in his work.
The exhibition title, Prima Facie is Latin for 'at first sight' and draws attention to the overriding impulse to construct meaning. By using absurd conjunctions such as 'marshmallow bunny,' 'far from shy,' 'pool party,' or 'pure joy' Baldessari focuses on the similarities between the constructs of language, colour and facial expressions and the resulting emergence of meaning. Apparently arbitrary relationships between image, text and colour are established through Baldessari's manipulations. The disparities between the text, image and colour compositions elicit a range of meanings that reject a fixed definition. This plurality of meaning is underpinned by a structuralist attitude; an idea that was expounded upon by linguistic theorists such as Ferdinand de Saussure and favours the coexistence of many meanings as opposed to an authoritative interpretation. In an inventive way Prima Facie (Fifth State) demonstrates the cultural, psychological and symbolic interpretations that are inherent in our perception of colour, language and facial expression.
John Baldessari has played a pivotal role in conceptual art, his subtle irony and attitude towards the rigorous intellectualism of conceptual art have become central ideas both historically and currently in artistic practice. Baldessari's unique oeuvre provides works of visual intrigue that lie between a hybrid of painting and photography. His lexicon of images and texts incorporate elements such as chance and coincidence of the most disconcertingly pleasurable variety. Crucial to Baldessari is the understated wit and lightness of touch present in his work. He has consistently questioned artistic developments, producing conceptually reflexive works that force viewers to search for their own meanings within the works.
The new artist's book Marilyn's Dress (2006) published by Walther König will be available at Sprüth Magers Lee in early May.
John Baldessari was born in National City, California in 1931, and has lived in Santa Monica since 1970. His remarkable decades-long tenure as a teacher at the California Institute of the Arts has influenced several generations of artists. His work has been featured in more than 120 solo exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe and in over 300 group exhibitions. In 2006 he will collaborate with the Kunst Museum Bonn and Bonner Kunstverein, Germany, for an exhibition celebrating musical connections within his work. In 2005 a two-part retrospective of his work took place at the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien and the Kunsthaus Graz in Austria and the Museé d'Art Contemporain, Nimes. Somewhere Between Almost Right and Not Quite (with Orange) took place at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin in 2004/2005. Other recent solo exhibitions were held at Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik (2001), the Sprengel Museum, Hannover, and the Staatliche Kunstammlungen Dresden (1999); the Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Roverto, Trento, Italy (2000-01); and at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich and the Witte de With, Rotterdam (1998).