“Kissing Series: Simone Palm Trees (Near)” (1975), two color photographs on board by John Baldessari. On view at the L.A. County Museum of Art through Sept. 12.
‘John Baldessari: Pure Beauty’ Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Ave., Los Angeles, Through Sept. 12 Noon-8 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays; noon-9 p.m. Fridays; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays $12 adults, $8 seniors and students 18+ with ID, free for children 17 and younger . lacma.org
‘PURE BEAUTY’
Over at LACMA, the largest-to-date retrospective of John Baldessari’s work is currently on view in the Broad Contemporary Art Museum. This show comes to LACMA by way of the Tate Modern in London, where it was on display from Oct. 13, 2009 to Jan. 10.
I had the opportunity to see this exhibit in London, and I have to say, it looks a whole lot better in Los Angeles. Maybe it’s the newer, fresher gallery space at LACMA, versus the Tate’s gray, institutional interiors. Or perhaps it’s the palm trees that are visible outside the museum and also present in Baldessari’s work. Whatever the reason, “Pure Beauty” feels at home at LACMA.
Baldessari is an extremely influential artist, one of the vanguards of conceptual art stretching back to the 1960s. He was also an art professor at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia and at UCLA, and has taught generations of artists, including David Salle, Cindy Sherman and Barbara Kruger. Basically, you can hardly escape Baldessari’s reach and influence if you are an artist, critic or art historian living and working in California.
“Pure Beauty” is fascinating, occasionally repetitive, and, at times, darn humorous. It’s enlightening to see how Baldessari moved from traditional painting to text and photographic image-based collages, bringing much of the art world with him.
The show features some iconic Baldessari works, including “Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell” (1966-68), “Everything is Purged…” (1966-68) and “A Painting That is its Own Documentation” (1966-2010).
Baldessari uses old images from forgotten films, sometimes isolating specific parts and other times covering faces with colored or white circles, rendering the people anonymous. “Frames and Ribbon” (1988) is a sardonic commentary on an art competition, while “Kiss Panic” (1984) is a powerful collage of guns pointing in a kaleidoscope of directions.
His later work embraces shape, dimension and color, demonstrating that he’s still exploring relevant concepts even as he approaches his eighth decade.
Like Andy Warhol, Baldessari tells us volumes about our culture and our obsessions, using text, film, TV and photographic images to reflect fundamental characteristics of our era.
