Artist

John Baldessari

born National City, CA 1931-died Los Angeles, CA 2020
Also known as
  • John Anthony Baldessari
Born
National City, California, United States
Died
Los Angeles, California, United States
Active in
  • Santa Monica, California, United States
Nationalities
  • American
Biography

John Baldessari was born in National City, on San Diego Bay in California in 1931. He enrolled at San Diego State College in 1949 and received his BA in painting in 1953. He also studied at Berkeley in 1953. He returned to San Diego State College in 1955 and earned his MA in 1957. As a graduate student he started teaching in the colleges and schools of San Diego; he continued to do so until 1961. From 1962 until 1968, he taught at Southwestern College at Chula Vista, near San Diego. While at Southwestern he began to work in photography, film, and video. From 1970 to 1985, he taught at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, where he continues to teach today. He currently lives and works in Santa Monica, California.

National Museum of American Art (CD-ROM) (New York and Washington D.C.: MacMillan Digital in cooperation with the National Museum of American Art, 1996)

Exhibitions

Crowd of people
Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image
March 11, 2017March 18, 2018
Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image is a series of rotating exhibitions drawn from SAAM’s permanent collection. The works of art featured in this installation identify a complex relationship between still photography and moving images. These artistic engagements with captured and recorded pictures examine notions of storytelling and processes of interpretation, underscoring just how relative meaning can be, and urging viewers to question where the power of imagery might reside. Taken together, the arrangement traces a vibrant call and response between artists and pictures, narratives, and interpretation.
Media - 2000.53 - SAAM-2000.53_1 - 13628
Multiplicity
November 11, 2011March 11, 2012
Multiplicity features 83 works from the museum’s permanent collection by such outstanding contemporary artists as John Baldessari, John Cage, Vija Celmins, Chuck Close, R. Luke DuBois, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Julie Mehretu, Martin Puryear, Susan Rothenberg, Kiki Smith, and Kara Walker. The concept of making multiple images from the same matrix has been integral to printmaking ever since the earliest prints were pulled from woodblocks and metal plates in the fifteenth century. Each impression is considered to be an original work of art.
Media - 2012.56 - 2012.56_1a.jpg - 88539
Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image (3.0)
April 30, 2013February 15, 2015
Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image is a series of rotating exhibitions drawn from SAAM’s permanent collection. The works of art featured in this installation identify a complex relationship between still photography and moving images. These artistic engagements with captured and recorded pictures examine notions of storytelling and processes of interpretation, underscoring just how relative meaning can be, and urging viewers to question where the power of imagery might reside. Taken together, the arrangement traces a vibrant call and response between artists and pictures, narratives, and interpretation.
Media - 2016.29.3 - SAAM-2016.29.3_1 - 124404
Watch This! New Directions on the Art of the Moving Image (5.0)
September 8, 2016March 6, 2017
Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image is a series of rotating exhibitions drawn from SAAM’s permanent collection. The works of art featured in this installation identify a complex relationship between still photography and moving images. These artistic engagements with captured and recorded pictures examine notions of storytelling and processes of interpretation, underscoring just how relative meaning can be, and urging viewers to question where the power of imagery might reside. Taken together, the arrangement traces a vibrant call and response between artists and pictures, narratives, and interpretation.