Seven newly acquired works by John Baldessari for the Pinakothek der Moderne

John Baldessari
Studio, 1988
Lithografie und Siebdruck auf Papier | Lithograph and screenprint on paper
ca. 65,3 x 85,6 cm
2019 erworben durch | acquired by PIN. Freunde
der Pinakothek der Moderne e. V. für die Sammlung Moderne Kunst | for the Modern Art Collection
© courtesy of John Baldessari Estate

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Seven newly acquired works by John Baldessari for the Pinakothek der Moderne

Pinakothek der Moderne | Kunst
Room 27
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John Baldessari (1931 - 2020) is one of the best-known representatives of conceptual art. He combines ingenuity and levity in his work, creating a sense of idiosyncratic irony which subtly questions his own artistic identity.

The recent acquisition of seven works by Baldessari has created the occasion for a one-room installation. This idea originated with Inka Graeve Ingelmann (1960 - 2019). As head of the Photography and New Media department, she has been instrumental in building and shaping the collection since the opening of the Pinakothek der Moderne. The John Baldessari Room was realised according to her plans.

The One with the dots
“I’ll probably be remembered as the guy who put dots over people’s faces”, Baldessari said. Yet this trademark ability to direct attention from the essential to the supposedly trivial, is but one aspect of the artist’s rich visual universe. Photography and painting, video and sculpture, image and text, and the general crossover between different disciplines and narratives define his work.

© Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen/Margarita Platis

Baldessari under the spotlight at the Pinakothek der Moderne

Since 2003, the cornerstone of the Baldessari collection has been formed by two works on permanent loan from Siemens AG; the large-format photograph “Man Running / Men Carrying Box”, 1988-90, and the portfolio “The Metaphor Problem”, 1999. From 2017 the support of PIN. Freunde der Pinakothek der Moderne has enabled the progressive expansion of the collection, now comprising eleven works which allow an insightful overview of his diverse oeuvre:  

The 1971 video “I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art” is an iconic work of art in Baldessari’s oeuvre as well as for conceptual art in general, in which Baldessari presents the guiding principle and the self-fulfilling prophecy of his career. In two other, early video works, “Baldessari Sings LeWitt” and “Teaching a Plant the Alphabet”, he closely examines the output of fellow artists: Sol LeWitt’s famous manifesto on conceptual art and Joseph Beuys’ performance “How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare”. Baldessari, who was also an influential teacher, here created both works of art in their own right as well as didactic pieces on the history of art. In the Modern Art Collection at the Pinakothek der Moderne, these can now be viewed in close proximity to the works of Joseph Beuys, Sol LeWitt and Hanne Darboven.

Other features are the newly acquired photogravure “Falling Star”, 1989-1990, and the lithograph “Studio”, 1988, in which a formally dressed group, of either critics or collectors depending on the context, looks over the painter’s shoulder during the creative process. But what are they able to see, given that Baldessari concealed their faces with colour dots? This curious mask allows for new perspectives whilst exposing the personality cults and power dynamics of the art world.

Baldessari’s critical commentary on his own guild can likewise be observed in the offset lithograph “Six Rooms” and in “The Fallen Easel”. He continually searched for a fresh look, a new context.

A Brief History of John Baldessari - a film portrait
The exhibition ends with the short film “A Brief History of John Baldessari”. The artistic documentary produced in 2012 by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, narrated by Tom Waits, summarises Baldessari’s life’s work and gets right to the ?