John Baldessari

The video features Baldessari sitting in front of a wall with a fistful of papers and a microphone at his side. “I’d like to sing for you some of the sentences that Sol LeWitt has written on conceptual art,” Baldessari begins. “I feel this is a tribute to him in that I think that these sentences have been hidden too long in the pages of exhibition catalogues and that perhaps by my singing them for you, it will bring these sentences to a much larger public.” Significant for this video, as well as Baldessari's practice at large through the years, is an embrace of humour and a tendency towards producing art that, while it appeals to a more specialized art audience, it is also very accessible.

Curators: Nina Slejko and Conny Blom

Special thanks to Phil Curtis and John Baldessari.


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SLO below		John Baldessari: Baldessari Sings LeWitt (4 March - 31 March)
John Baldessari (1931) is an American conceptual artist who lives and works in California. “Baldessari Sings LeWitt” is a video piece from 1972. More about the artist at: http://www.baldessari.org/ Baldessari started his career as a painter, but was soon to become recognized as one of the most important figures of the “conceptual art movement”. However, when he in 1968 exhibited his new conceptual works for the first time, Joseph Kosuth, one of the core conceptual artists, was not convinced. In “Art after Philosophy”, his 1969 essay on conceptual art, Kosuth wrote that “although the amusing pop paintings of John Baldessari allude to this sort of work by being ‘conceptual’ cartoons of actual conceptual art, they are not really relevant to this discussion.” Allegedly, Baldessari responded to Kosuth with the piece that we will be showing – “Baldessari Sings LeWitt”, a 13 minute video in which Baldessari sings each of Sol LeWitt’s 35 statements on conceptual art to a different pop tune. At the time the video was made, Baldessari was much less known than LeWitt, who has by then established a position of one of the forefront conceptual artist and has besides a big work-oeuvre written many essays and manifests on the theme. His 35 sentences on conceptual art, that Baldessari decided to sing, are a set of quite precise ideas on what techniques a conceptual artist is allowed to use in his/her work and also offers some glimpse into what might qualify as a conceptual art piece, and what not.
The video features Baldessari sitting in front of a wall with a fistful of papers and a microphone at his side. “I’d like to sing for you some of the sentences that Sol LeWitt has written on conceptual art,” Baldessari begins. “I feel this is a tribute to him in that I think that these sentences have been hidden too long in the pages of exhibition catalogues and that perhaps by my singing them for you, it will bring these sentences to a much larger public.” Significant for this video, as well as Baldessari's practice at large through the years, is an embrace of humour and a tendency towards producing art that, while it appeals to a more specialized art audience, it is also very accessible. Curators: Nina Slejko and Conny Blom Special thanks to Phil Curtis and John Baldessari.

SLO John Baldessari: “Baldessari Sings LeWitt” (Baldessari poje LeWitt-a) John Baldessari (1931) je ameriški konceptualni umetnik, ki živi in dela v Kaliforniji. “Baldessari Sings LeWitt” je njegovo video delo iz leta 1972. Več o umetniku na: http://www.baldessari.org/ Baldessari je začel svojo kariero kot slikar, vendar je kmalu postal poznan kot eden najpomembnejših osebnosti ”konceptualnega gibanja”. A njegova zgodnja predstavitev novih konceptualnih del leta 1968 ni prepričala Josepha Kosutha, enega ključnih konceptualnih umetnikov. V “Art after Philosophy” (Umetnost po filozofiji), svojem eseju o konceptualni umetnosti, je leta 1969 zapisal, da “čeprav zabavne pop slike Johna Baldessarija namigujejo na te vrste umetnost s tem, da so ”konceptualne” karikature dejanskih konceptualnih del, nimajo res zveze s to razpravo”. Baje je Baldessari odgovoril na kritike z delom, ki ga bomo prikazovali - “Baldessari Sings LeWitt”, trinajstminutnim videom v katerem Baldessari zapoje Sol LeWittovih petintrideset stavkov o konceptualni umetnosti, vsakega na drugo pop melodijo. V času, ko je video nastal, je bil Baldessari mnogo manj znan kot LeWitt, ki je bil priznan kot eden izmed vodilnih konceptualnih umetnikov in je bil poleg obširnega opusa del tudi avtor veliko esejev in manifestov na to temo. Njegovih 35 stavkov o konceptualni umetnosti, katere se je Baldessari odločil zapeti, je zbirka precej pedantnih idej o tem, kakšne tehnike konceptualni umetnik lahko uporablja pri svojem delu, ponudi pa tudi bežen vpogled na to, kaj se lahko kvalificira kot konceptualno umetniško delo, in kaj ne. V videu vidimo Johna Baldessarija, ki sedi pred zidom s papirji v roki in mikrofonom ob strani. ”Rad bi vam zapel nekatere izmed stavkov, ki jih je Sol LeWitt napisal o konceptualni umetnosti,” začne Baldessari. ”Mislim, da je to poklon njemu v tem, da se mi zdi, da so bili ti stavki predolgo skriti na straneh razstavnih katalogov in da jih bom morda s tem, ko vam jih bom zapel, približal mnogo širši publiki...” Značilno za ta video, prav tako kot za Baldessarijevo delo nasploh, je privzemanje humorja in težnja po ustvarjanju umetnin, ki obenem ugajajo specializirani umetniški publiki in so tudi zlahka dostopne širšemu občinstvu. Kustosa: Nina Slejko & Conny Blom Posebno lepa hvala Philu Curtisu in Johnu Baldessariju.




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