The Studio
Artist
John Baldessari
(American, born 1931)
Date1988
Mediumlithograph with screenprint on cream wove paper
Dimensions77.4 x 97.7 cm (sheet), 65 x 86 cm (image)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineGift of the Fletcher/Priest Gallery
Object number2003.156
Label TextSince the 1970s, John Baldessari has used film stills, photographs, and other pre-existing imagery to explore how images communicate and to challenge conventions about what is represented in a work of art and how we understand it. On a museum visit early in his career, Baldessari was struck by the use of unpainted plaster to fill in missing shards of a Greek vase; this prompted his ongoing interest in how images are affected by having portions removed or covered. The Studio demonstrates Baldessari’s practice of altering found photographs by concealing individuals’ faces with colored dots—passages of “pure” abstraction—thus interrupting the realist content and redirecting attention away from any intended narrative to the marginal details. “In my work,” Baldessari said, “I found that I could be the master of my own universe and control what people see and pay attention to.”
ProvenanceFletcher/Priest GalleryOn View
Not on view
