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Showing 18 results for John Baldessari
Media - 2013.74 - SAAM-2013.74_2 - 95933
John Baldessari: An Appreciation
Remembering the influential artist whose video works helped define contemporary art
Blog post
John Baldessari
born National City, CA 1931-died Los Angeles, CA 2020

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.

Person
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
1971
In this single-channel video, John Baldessari examines the chronological relationship between still images and motion pictures.
Artwork
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
1972
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.
Artwork
John Baldessari, Black Dice, 1982, color aquatint, photo etching, soft ground and lift ground on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1993.31.1A-I, © 1982, Peter Blum Edition and Blumarts, Inc., New York
Black Dice
1982
Black Dice is based on a still photograph derived from an English gangster film of that name. The photograph represents a split second from a longer, continuous narrative.
Artwork
Media - 2012.56 - 2012.56_1a.jpg - 88539
Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image (3.0)
Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image is a series of rotating exhibitions drawn from SAAM’s permanent collection.
Exhibition
Media - 2016.29.3 - SAAM-2016.29.3_1 - 124404
Watch This! New Directions on the Art of the Moving Image (5.0)
Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image is a series of rotating exhibitions drawn from SAAM’s permanent collection.
Exhibition
Media - 2000.53 - SAAM-2000.53_1 - 13628
Multiplicity
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.
Exhibition
Crowd of people
Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image
Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image is a series of rotating exhibitions drawn from SAAM’s permanent collection.
Exhibition
Philip Guston
Art Comes from Art
In 1970 John Baldessari was using an abandoned theater for a studio, and he'd filled it completely with paintings from the early 1950s through the late 1960s. At some point he surveyed the studio as some people might look at a crowded closet and decided the paintings were "a problem to solve."
Blog post
Media - 1999.80 - SAAM-1999.80_1 - 52092
Works on Paper
Graphic arts comprise a large part of the museum’s collection, which reveals the central importance of works on paper for American artists, both as studies for creations in other media and as finished works of art.
Highlight
A photograph of a lobby, bookshop and gallery.
Jorge Pardo
Jorge Pardo was the inaugural winner of the Lucelia Artist Award.
Page
Media - 2006.20 - SAAM-2006.20_1 - 66616
Time-Based Media
The Time-Based Media Art Initiative at the Smithsonian American Art Museum reflects a commitment to develop the museum’s time-based media collections, research resources, and programs.
Highlight
Watching Watch This!
As part of the museum's new after work series of curator talks focusing on the permanent collection, "Tour the Floor—What to See on Three," Michael Mansfield, curator of film and media arts, spoke to an assembled group on the current iteration of Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image.
Blog post