John Baldessari A Movie: Directional Piece Where People Are Walking (Version A) 1972-1973 twenty-two black and white photographs with acrylic paint, each mounted on board each: 3 1/2 x 5 in. (8.9 x 12.7 cm) frame: 5 3/8 x 7 3/8 x 1/2 in. (13.7 x 18.7 x 1.3 cm) Each work numbered consecutively one through twenty-two on the reverse.
Provenance Galleria Toselli, Milan Marzona Collection, Bielefeld David Zwirner, New York Private Collection Private Collection Exhibited Vienna, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien im Palais Liechtenstein, Die Sammlung Marzona: Arte Povera, Minimal Art, Concept Art, Land Art, June 14 - September 17, 1995 Vienna, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, John Baldessari A Different Kind of Order, March 4 – July 3, 2005 Literature L. Hegyi, E. Marzona, R. Fuchs, Die Sammlung Marzona: Arte Povera, Minimal Art, Concept Art, Land Art, Vienna, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien im Palais Liechtenstein, 1995, p. 8 2 (illustrated) P. Pardo, R. Dean, John Baldessari Catalogue Raisonne, Volume One: 1956 – 1974, Yale University, 2012, cat no. 1973-7, pp. 224-225 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay John Baldessari has radicalized contemporary art through the subversion and hybridization of imagery and symbols. In addition, he has developed one of the art world’s most notorious reputations for both conscious self-improvement and self-annihilation: In 1970, due to the fear of appearing, in his own words, “boring,” Baldessari embarked upon The Cremation Project, an elaborate incineration of every one of his paintings created between 1953 and 1966. While some artists would scoff at such a destructive act, Baldessari conjured out of the flames a new piece that signified his conceptual greatness: each piece was baked into a separate cookie, complete with birth and death date. As he tackled photography fused with his own brand of narrative semiotics, Baldessari created masterpieces such as A Movie: Directional Piece Where People Are Walking (Version A), 1972-1973. The present lot’s depth of theory is matched only by its lightness, humor, and keen observation of our methods of storytelling. Similar to Ed Ruscha Baldessari’s career has been one dominated by the atmosphere of California; he has both lived and worked in the state since birth, and was educated at various universities throughout California such as Berkeley and UCLA. Perhaps it is California’s environmental stability that allows its artists to lurch forward in their formative progress: as he entered the late 1960s, having worked as a painter as a faculty member at various colleges for years before, his art began to take drastic turns, culminating with The Cremation Project in 1970. Rather than simply deal with paint on a canvas, Baldessari concerned himself with both the impact of the printed word and the implications of our most familiar semiotics. Slowly pulling any traces of himself out of the creation of his pieces, his work took the form of a photograph if he desired an image, yet, if the subject was a text-based, the artist would mechanically reproduce it with stencil, never betraying his presence in its rendering. It was at this time, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, that Baldessari began creating series of photographs with arrows suggesting the direction that the narrative was supposed to take. This conceptual exploration, be it through his photography, advertisement, or—in some canvas-based examples—art historical reference, resonated through his teaching career at Cal Art and deeply influenced the conceptual and multimedia approach of his students. The present lot, A Movie: Directional Piece Where People Are Walking (Version A), 1972-1973, can be situated within the broader context of Baldessari’s exploration of coded imagery, documentation, and narrative. From a holistic point of view, A Movie: Directional Piece Where People Are Walking (Version A), 1972-1973 looks as though it is a collection of nostalgic portraits, the subject of each of a character within the framer’s past life. We see a total of twenty-two photographs numbered and aligned into two parallel registers; each photograph features what appears to be a candid shot of a single subject or group of figures, taken from a distance. Baldessari’s scenes are set in ambiguous locations, oscillating be
John Baldessari A Movie: Directional Piece Where People Are Walking (Version A) 1972-1973 twenty-two black and white photographs with acrylic paint, each mounted on board each: 3 1/2 x 5 in. (8.9 x 12.7 cm) frame: 5 3/8 x 7 3/8 x 1/2 in. (13.7 x 18.7 x 1.3 cm) Each work numbered consecutively one through twenty-two on the reverse.
Provenance Galleria Toselli, Milan Marzona Collection, Bielefeld David Zwirner, New York Private Collection Private Collection Exhibited Vienna, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien im Palais Liechtenstein, Die Sammlung Marzona: Arte Povera, Minimal Art, Concept Art, Land Art, June 14 - September 17, 1995 Vienna, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, John Baldessari A Different Kind of Order, March 4 – July 3, 2005 Literature L. Hegyi, E. Marzona, R. Fuchs, Die Sammlung Marzona: Arte Povera, Minimal Art, Concept Art, Land Art, Vienna, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien im Palais Liechtenstein, 1995, p. 8 2 (illustrated) P. Pardo, R. Dean, John Baldessari Catalogue Raisonne, Volume One: 1956 – 1974, Yale University, 2012, cat no. 1973-7, pp. 224-225 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay John Baldessari has radicalized contemporary art through the subversion and hybridization of imagery and symbols. In addition, he has developed one of the art world’s most notorious reputations for both conscious self-improvement and self-annihilation: In 1970, due to the fear of appearing, in his own words, “boring,” Baldessari embarked upon The Cremation Project, an elaborate incineration of every one of his paintings created between 1953 and 1966. While some artists would scoff at such a destructive act, Baldessari conjured out of the flames a new piece that signified his conceptual greatness: each piece was baked into a separate cookie, complete with birth and death date. As he tackled photography fused with his own brand of narrative semiotics, Baldessari created masterpieces such as A Movie: Directional Piece Where People Are Walking (Version A), 1972-1973. The present lot’s depth of theory is matched only by its lightness, humor, and keen observation of our methods of storytelling. Similar to Ed Ruscha Baldessari’s career has been one dominated by the atmosphere of California; he has both lived and worked in the state since birth, and was educated at various universities throughout California such as Berkeley and UCLA. Perhaps it is California’s environmental stability that allows its artists to lurch forward in their formative progress: as he entered the late 1960s, having worked as a painter as a faculty member at various colleges for years before, his art began to take drastic turns, culminating with The Cremation Project in 1970. Rather than simply deal with paint on a canvas, Baldessari concerned himself with both the impact of the printed word and the implications of our most familiar semiotics. Slowly pulling any traces of himself out of the creation of his pieces, his work took the form of a photograph if he desired an image, yet, if the subject was a text-based, the artist would mechanically reproduce it with stencil, never betraying his presence in its rendering. It was at this time, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, that Baldessari began creating series of photographs with arrows suggesting the direction that the narrative was supposed to take. This conceptual exploration, be it through his photography, advertisement, or—in some canvas-based examples—art historical reference, resonated through his teaching career at Cal Art and deeply influenced the conceptual and multimedia approach of his students. The present lot, A Movie: Directional Piece Where People Are Walking (Version A), 1972-1973, can be situated within the broader context of Baldessari’s exploration of coded imagery, documentation, and narrative. From a holistic point of view, A Movie: Directional Piece Where People Are Walking (Version A), 1972-1973 looks as though it is a collection of nostalgic portraits, the subject of each of a character within the framer’s past life. We see a total of twenty-two photographs numbered and aligned into two parallel registers; each photograph features what appears to be a candid shot of a single subject or group of figures, taken from a distance. Baldessari’s scenes are set in ambiguous locations, oscillating be
Testen Sie LotSearch und seine Premium-Features 7 Tage - ohne Kosten!
Lassen Sie sich automatisch über neue Objekte in kommenden Auktionen benachrichtigen.
Suchauftrag anlegen
.jpg "Quelle: Christie's")
.jpg "Quelle: Christie's")
