John Baldessari

Born 1931 and Died 2020 (88 years old

American conceptual known for his dotted faces.He has also done printmaking, film, installation, sculpture, photography, painting.

He went and also taught art at San Diego State College.He taught at a variety of places for 30+ years. He became the head of the art program at UCSD in 1968. In 1970 he moved to Santa Monica where he was a teacher at CalArts where he met many artists.

1966 he was using photos and text on canvas. His early work was empty canvases derived from contemporary art theory statements.

One of his most famous works is in 1970 he decided to cremate his early work (1953-1966) some of the ashes from the paintings were put in cookies and an urn in the shape of a book.

He would also take mostly film stills out of context by adding text with the images. He would also take photography books from amateurs and use them as well. He would also use photos of him self in his work. Another one of the juxtaposing works would be like a glass and he would put “a glass is a glass”.

He would use him self in a lot of his work. He had a interest in language.

The dots on faces came from those adhesive stickers and putting them on faces. This series of work came to be in the mid80’s and on.