John Baldessari (1931–2020)

Exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with show held at the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium, September 17 - December 3, 2006. The different states of The Prima Facie Series were shown at Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles (First State), April 9 - May 5, 2005; Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich (Second State), June 11 - July 30, 2005; Galeria Pepe Cobo, Madrid (Third State), September 14 - November 10, 2005; Galerie Meert Rihoux, Brussels (Fourth State), December 16 - January 28, 2006; and Sprüth Magers Lee, London (Fifth State), April 28-June 24, 2006. Includes an interview with Baldessari by Ann Cesteleyn.… (more)

Artist's book by John Baldessari. Book design and editing by John Baldessari with Nina Holland, Simon Johnston and Jerry Sohn. "It all began many years ago with an innocent interest in the way people like to anthropomorphize. Animals, objects, just about anything can be given human characteristics. Following his curiosity, John Baldessari was soon enough making his own pictures of objects with barely perceptible human features. Maybe they would be detected, maybe they wouldn’t. It was akin to seeing the Virgin Mary in a tortilla. Next came a series of noses and ears gleefully placed on colorful, flat, somewhat lumpy and rounded shapes: faces. Much to Baldessari’s surprise and our amusement, he recently looked again at these mustard and cobalt colored face shapes that populate his studio and came to a decisive conclusion: Potato chips! Those faces are potato chips! In a moment he had handed over a stack of prints of chips with just visible full faces peering out at us, only to issue a kind-hearted warning: These are really too perfect. Life isn’t perfect. Potato chips break, pieces crack off. Think of the Venus de Milo, and I think you’ll know where I’m going with this book. And look, I have a title too... And thus Baldessari’s Miracle Chips began to make their way one by one into the world." -- publisher's statement.

references
No. AB2010.1 in "John Baldessari Catalogue Raisonné, Volume Six: 2011 – 2019" by Patrick Pardo, Robert Dean, Michael Auping, Philipp Kaiser, David Platzker. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, 2020, pp. 494.… (more)

Artist's book based around four stereoscopic events and reactions photographed by Baldessari. Four events are pictured: (1) Putting a finger in milk; (2) Touching a cactus; (3) Putting out a cigarette; and (4) Pushing a plate off a table. A young woman's reactions are pictured on facing pages. "This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition held at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, from November 21st, 1975, through January 4th, 1976"

references
No. AB1975.2 in "John Baldessari Catalogue Raisonné, Volume Six: 2011 – 2019" by Patrick Pardo, Robert Dean, Michael Auping, Philipp Kaiser, David Platzker. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, 2020, pp. 483.… (more)