Who was John Baldessari?
John Baldessari is an American-Californian Conceptual Artist. He lives and works in Santa Monica and Venice. He is best known for works that take photographic materials such as film stills out of their original context and juxtaposing the picture with text, such as his early text painting called the “Wrong” series.
In the “Wrong” photograph, John Baldessari had himself photographed in front of a palm tree so that it looked as though the tree was growing out of his head. One of the reason why Baldessari may have introduced text to his paintings could have been because he realized that images and texts have similar characteristics – they both can use codes as a way of conveying their messages. John Baldessari once stated: "You don't want anyone to say 'You can't do that!' But you do get a lot of that in New York. One of the healthiest things about California is - 'Why not?'” |
[The following link will take you to John Baldessari's website which contains much more information and knowledge on the Photographer, should you wish to access it: http://www.baldessari.org/]