Teaching a Plant the Alphabet

John Baldessari, Teaching a Plant the Alphabet, 1972, single-channel video, black and white, sound; 18:40 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the Ford Motor Company, 2007.33.7, © 1972 John Baldessari. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, NY
John Baldessari, Teaching a Plant the Alphabet, 1972, single-channel video, black and white, sound; 18:40 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the Ford Motor Company, 2007.33.7, © 1972 John Baldessari. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, NY

Artwork Details

Title
Teaching a Plant the Alphabet
Date
1972
Location
Not on view
Copyright
© 1972 John Baldessari. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, NY
Credit Line
Museum purchase made possible by the Ford Motor Company
Mediums
Mediums Description
single-channel video, black and white, sound; 18:40 minutes
Classifications
Subjects
  • Object — letter
  • Object — foliage
Object Number
2007.33.7

Artwork Description

One of John Baldessari’s primary interests as a conceptual artist is to explore how images acquire meaning, and therefore to probe the boundaries of how we define art. In Teaching a Plant the Alphabet, the artist patiently gives an elementary lesson in the English alphabet to a potted banana plant. The absurdist exercise, with its futile, monotonous repetition and deadpan delivery, confronts our expectations of what art is supposed to look like. This video is also Baldessari’s response to the popularity of the academic disciplines of linguistics and semiotics that influenced many conceptual artists during the 1970s.


Watch This!: Revelations in Media Art, 2015

Works by this artist (5 items)

John Baldessari, Six Colorful Inside Jobs, 1977, 16mm film on video, color, silent; 32:53 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2013.74, © 1977 John Baldessari. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, NY
Six Colorful Inside Jobs
Date1977
16mm film on video, color, silent; 32:53 minutes
Not on view
John Baldessari, Teaching a Plant the Alphabet, 1972, single-channel video, black and white, sound; 18:40 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the Ford Motor Company, 2007.33.7, © 1972 John Baldessari. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, NY
Teaching a Plant the Alphabet
Date1972
single-channel video, black and white, sound; 18:40 minutes
Not on view
John Baldessari, Walking Forward-Running Past, 1971, single-channel video, black and white, sound; 12:45 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the Ford Motor Company, 2007.33.8, © 1971 John Baldessari. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, NY
Walking Forward-Running Past
Date1971
single-channel video, black and white, sound; 12:45 minutes
Not on view
John Baldessari, Ed Henderson Reconstructs Movie Scenarios, 1973, single-channel video, black and white, sound; 24:04 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the Ford Motor Company, 2007.33.6, © 1973 John Baldessari. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, NY
Ed Henderson Reconstructs Movie Scenarios
Date1973
single-channel video, black and white, sound; 24:04 minutes
Not on view

More Artworks from the Collection

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Date1992
single-channel video, color sound; 05:58 minutes
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Head of a Misanthropic Man
Date1976-1978
analog video transferred to digital video, color, silent; looped
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Charlemagne Palestine, Running Outburst, 1975, 5:56 minutes, black & white, sound, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the Ford Motor Company, 2008.21.6, © 1975, Charlemagne Palestine. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, NY
Running Outburst
Date1975
5:56 minutes, black & white, sound
Not on view
Bill Viola, Silent Life from The Reflecting Pool- Collected Work 1977-80, 1979, 13:14 minutes, color, sound, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the Ford Motor Company, 2008.21.16.3, © 1979 Bill Viola. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, NY
Silent Life from The Reflecting Pool- Collected Work 1977 – 80
Date1979
13:14 minutes, color, sound
Not on view