I was fascinated by how simple it can be. Simple ways of communicating what he wants to say - and how he presents images and text to present a different way of looking at the banality and absurdity of life.
I was most interested in his middle section of his career, where he had progressed form painting onto text and image.
(1966) He states that word is equal to image. He removes himself from the physical act of painting and reconsiders the role of the artist - through solely text based canvas's encompassing tips for artists, rights, wrongs...etc.
1970 CremationHe had a radical shift in his career, where he moved away from painting completely to photography and film. Whereby he burnt all of his previous works to make a fresh, only a few paintings survived.
He uses multiple images to construct a new sense of order. With photographs that belong in a sequence, mundane and meaningless on their own, and by placing them together - form a narrative - encouraging new ways of looking at the world.
He uses bizarre games and tasks with peculiar rules to bring art back to the everyday. Using peoples actions and reactions to form the content of his work.
I liked how he wanted to avoid using his choice of what was 'best' images were, by taking an objective route, using rules and timers therefore including the mundane as 'much of life is boring'.
Throwing four balls in the air to get a square ( best of 36 tries ), John Baldessari,1974.I liked this quote,
'While we thing we understand something at first glance, it becomes more complicated when we start to prove it.'
Whilst looking at his work and his methodology it helped me to make sense of the way i work and i hope to produce and display work in the future. Very inspiring. A good artist to think about when i come to planning my essay.