Two Assemblages 2003 / 2008

Two Assemblages (R, O, G, B, V transparent)

One of John Baldessari’s biggest accomplishments has been, together with other prominent artists of the twentieth century, to secure photography’s place in the world of art.

Over his long artistic career, the Californian concerned himself like no other with both the practical and theoretical aspects of the medium. He brought camera and screen together, took Pop Art to new conceptual levels, allowed image and text to collide – always producing creative, intellectual contrasts and stimulating results. His major theme is the interchange of exposure and obscurity; he has developed it in his expressive collage technique and cultivated it in various techniques, from painting to print.

John Baldessari appropriates advertising and film in his painting in order to manipulate both and to contradict the material’s narrative content. In his direct, humorous way, he shows us with his primary-colored “pointers” how we perceive what is transmitted by media, how we make decisions and comparisons.