Although Conceptual artist John Baldessari is best known for the richly provocative juxtapositions of photographic images and text that characterize his prints and paintings, he actually had something of a traditional art world upbringing — if such a thing exists.
Born in Southern California, Baldessari earned several art degrees, from art education to art history to painting. He also taught art at various institutions such as the California Institute of the Arts throughout his life. Among his many students were David Salle, Tony Oursler, Jim Shaw and Mike Kelley. While helping to shape the art world in Los Angeles, he simultaneously developed his own name as an artist.
In the 1950s, Baldessari’s works were primarily semiabstract paintings, but during the late 1960s, he began to distance himself from painting, as he bristled at the idea of limiting art to a single medium. Baldessari decided to take his career in a dramatically different direction. He burned all his paintings at a funeral home in San Diego, then incorporated the ashes into cookie dough, producing (nonedible) baked goods for an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
“It was a very public and symbolic act,” he said, “like announcing you’re going on a diet in order to stick to it.”
From that point on, Baldessari took on an MO of experimentation, dabbling in mediums from video to printmaking to sculpture. “I just stare at something and say: Why isn’t that art? Why couldn’t that be art?” he said in an interview in 2008.
The works for which Baldessari is most highly regarded, however, are striking collages of images and text — many of which are seemingly nonsensical — such as Tom’s Hand Grips the Steering, Wheel… (2015), in which the title’s text is displayed beneath a hippopotamus. As such is his body of work: bringing a sense of joviality to the sometimes too-serious world of Conceptual art.
Before he died in 2020, Baldessari was honored with the 2014 National Medal of Arts Award, the Americans for the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award, the Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement and more.
Find original John Baldessari art on 1stDibs.
Object (with Flaw)
By John Baldessari
Located in New York, NY
Color lithograph in two parts, on two separate sheets of Arches 88 paper, these two sheets comprise two of the four parts of the original "Object (with Flaw)" publication, 1988. One...
Lithograph, Color
Last Rays
By Yvonne Jacquette
Located in Lyons, CO
Color lithograph, Edition 30 Last Rays is an intensely colorful image that evokes the play of light and reflections caused by the late rays of the evening sun as they rake low acr...
Lithograph
Extra! Extra! Read All About It!
By Red Grooms
Located in Lyons, CO
Color 3-D lithograph in Plexiglas box, Edition 50 Red Grooms revisits the rich subject matter of his New York City neighborhood in his new three-dimensional lithograph “Extra! Ext...
Lithograph
"The First One" Limited Edition Drawing
By John Lennon
Located in Laguna Beach, CA
Rare Limited Edition Lithograph of John Lennon's "The First One" originally drawn in Japan in 1977, this limited edition was released by Bag One Arts (The Lennon Estate) in 1996 and...
Lithograph
Lost View: Dawn
By Yvonne Jacquette
Located in Lyons, CO
Color lithograph, Edition 45. Yvonne Jacquette depicts our urban world from a vantage point high above us. From her perch, she brings order and context to the crazy world we have made. Neon signs, strings of cars on dark highways, bright lit windows viewed from the top of a skyscraper or from an airplane window...
Lithograph
Between the Clock and the Bed
By Jasper Johns
Located in New York, NY
Created by Jasper Johns in 1989, Between the Clock and the Bed is an original lithograph in colors on John Koller HMP paper measuring 29 ¼ x 41 ¾ in (74.3 x 106 cm), unframed. Hand-...
Lithograph
"Look" Limited Edition Drawing
By John Lennon
Located in Laguna Beach, CA
Rare Limited Edition Lithograph of John Lennon's "Look" originally drawn in Japan in 1977, this limited edition was released by Bag One Arts (The Lennon Estate) in 1996 and has been...
Lithograph
$3,713
H 27.96 in Dm 27.96 in
Sakura and Panda Offset Print, Signed, 21st Century, 202/300
By Takashi Murakami
Located in Bristol, GB
Offset print with silver and high gloss varnishing Edition 202 of 300 71 cm (28 in) Diameter Signed, numbered, dated and titled on the front Excellent, with a soft crease on the left...
Offset, Lithograph
$1,950
H 39 in W 23 in
Damien Hirst Signed Lithograph "The Currency" Contemporary Modern Street Art
By Damien Hirst
Located in Draper, UT
These hand signed lithograph prints were only made available to "HOLDERS" of the Currency prints. Less than 1000 were hand signed by Damien Hirst a...
Lithograph
$3,713
H 29.14 in W 20.87 in
Homage to Monogold, 1960 Offset Print, Signed, Edition 28/300
By Takashi Murakami
Located in Bristol, GB
Offset print with cold stamp Edition 28 of 300 74 x 53 cm (29.1 x 20.8 in) Signed and numbered on the front Artwork in excellent condition. Minor crease along very edge of print on t...
Lithograph, Offset
$3,500
H 23.63 in W 15.75 in
ROSE QUARTZ ERODED BUST OF ROME DIVINISÉE, 2020 Produced by Perrotin, Offset
By Daniel Arsham
Located in Draper, UT
Daniel Arsham Rose Quartz Eroded Bust of Rome, Divinisée, 2020 Signed and Numbered (84/150) poster (offset print), published 2021 Daniel Arsham’s Rose Quartz Eroded Bust of Rome, D...
Lithograph
$1,250
H 23.5 in W 23.5 in
Jonas Wood Voorlinden Large Shelf Still Life, 2017 Condition Contemporary
By Jonas Wood
Located in Draper, UT
Artist: Jonas Wood Title: Large Shelf Still Life Year: 2017 Medium: Poster Technique: Offset lithograph printed in colours on wove paper, the full sheet printed to the edges Classifi...
Lithograph
$2,800
H 19.25 in W 23.75 in
"Four Corners Project" Mathematical Geography and Global Art Monograph in Blue
Located in Detroit, MI
This monograph contains Nystuen's calculations, actually used by Barr to position his abstract tetrahedral sculpture within the earth. Placement of the sculpture vertices in Easter I...
Paper, Lithograph
John Baldessari 1994 Painted Art Plate
By John Baldessari
Located in Surfside, FL
John Anthony Baldessari (born June 17, 1931) is an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lives and works in Santa Monica and Venice, California Initially a painter, Baldessari began to incorporate texts and photography into his canvases in the mid-1960s. In 1970 he began working in printmaking, film, video, installation, sculpture and photography. He has created thousands of works that demonstrate—and, in many cases, combine—the narrative potential of images and the associative power of language within the boundaries of the work of art. His art has been featured in more than 200 solo exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe. His work influenced Cindy Sherman, David Salle, and Barbara Kruger among others. Baldessari was born in National City, California to Hedvig Jensen, a Danish nurse, and Antonio Baldessari, an Italian salvage...