John Baldessari...

3:06 p.m.


20/08/24  It is difficult for collectors to lend their artworks, but of course everything depends on where they aregoing to be exhibited, what insurance would accompany the pieces, how much the collection or that loaned object would be revalued for being part of this or that exhibition, etc., etc. Several elements must be articulated so that everything turns out perfect for both the collector himself and the institution.
The MALBA Museum in Buenos Aires is currently presenting an exhibition by American artist John Baldessari (1931-2020) and it turns out that all the works belong to one same collector, who lives the United States. Thanks to his generosity and disposition we are allowed to get to know the work of one of the most representative artists of Conceptual Art of the 20th century.

 


Throwing a ball once to get three melodies and fifteen chords, by John Baldessari (1973)
15 black and white photographs with colored tape
Craig Robins Collection

Baldessari worked with all possible mediums but, as this exhibition demonstrates, the most significant are those works "in between mediums", for example language and drawing. As a conceptual artist, his work challenges us to think about what we are seeing or what he wants to tell to us. The meaning we seek is, many times, associated with situations or sensations typical of Western culture. In the works where he throws the ball hundreds of times and is photographed in the different poses of those throws, he decides to intervene by sticking tape-lines in different colors. We can link this work with humor (those strange poses) although there is a neatly defined simplicity with the lines in yellow or red. 

In all the works there is humor and references but, above all, there is sarcasm.

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Liliana Wrobel


Production & Translation

Carla Mitrani

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