There are artists who open avenues for thought and discussion. In the case of Baldessari, this inspiring role is also accompanied by a playfully transgressive attitude that is evident in each and (almost) each of the works in the retrospective that the MACBA is dedicating to him these days.
Last summer, from one of the Palazzi in Venice, a banner appeared that read “I will not make any more boring art.” A declaration of principles, written in 1971 by a professor at CalArts called John Baldessari. In the midst of the celebration of the 53rd edition of the Venice Biennale and about to receive a gold lion for his career, the phrase kept all its meaning. Although the contexts were different, since “I will not make any more boring art” was born as a result of Baldessari’s teaching work and his conviction that it is not possible to teach art, together with his desire to criticize the fundamentalisms of certain conceptualists, it gave rise to a video, in which the artist imposes on himself, almost as a school punishment, the task of writing over and over again this declaration of principles that, not even in the video, does he manage to fulfill. Despite this, we cannot help but side with the artist who dared to try to give a little more projection to Sol Lewitt’s “Sentences on Conceptual Art” by simply putting music to them and freeing them from their confinement in catalogues and art books.
“Pure Beauty”, the retrospective dedicated to him by the MACBA, takes as its title one of his works, which consists of a canvas on which these words appear. It cannot be more conceptual… or less… The works that make up the exhibition reflect very well the attitude of the professor who does not believe that art can be taught, but that it simply happens, comes from the game and is about breaking with the pre-established. And with these premises it is not strange that some of his students have developed more than outstanding careers: Matt Mullican, Richard Prince, Rita McBride or Jack Goldstein, among others. The list of artists who have been influenced by Baldessari would be much longer.
Baldessari’s work is disconcerting. There is always some element that irritates (the motif, the title, the formalization…). Whether it is because of the sense of humor or the recognition of images that are familiar to us, his works are close. However, there is always some element that does not quite fit, information that does not appear, a strange juxtaposition… Baldessari himself explained his intentions in an interview: “I like to offer just the right amount of information so as not to drown the work. Sometimes I suppress too much information and the work fails. When the work is successful it is because I have left enough information to activate the viewer’s mind, but not so much that the image is complete.”
The journey of “Pure Beauty” could not have started better, with a series of paintings (saved from the burning that the artist carried out, announced and documented in 1970 to rethink his work), a selection of “Text Paintings” in which the word replaces the image and the “Commissioned Paintings” in which he laughs at the premise that “conceptual art is limited to pointing”, to commission paintings from amateur painters in which a finger literally points to an innocuous motif. The videos “I will not make any more boring art”, “Baldessari sings Sol Lewitt” and “I am making art” (three authentic hits on Youtube that also have numerous revisions, responses and remakes) show his facet as a teacher who encourages students to see things from another perspective and, most importantly, to discover their own point of view. Another block of works focuses on the reflection on the identity of the artist, such as the photographs in which he greets each of the ships that enter and leave the port; He imitates a real cloud with cigarette smoke; he tries to align three orange balls in the air or paints a space with different colours in succession. In a world where everything must have a purpose and a use, Baldessari shows that it is still possible to do things for free, to disconcert, and that the artist’s job is precisely to alert us, through absurdity, that perhaps everything that seems so sensible and regulated is perhaps not so.
The second part of the exhibition focuses on work based on images, on collection, juxtaposition, assembly and relationship with words or colours. Using appropriated images, the artist aims to alter the hierarchy of vision, to introduce irritating elements to provoke, to stimulate attention, so that we are able to read the images and understand how they function in our culture. It is precisely in this part of the tour that space is gained and intensity is lost, the discourse becomes repetitive and the time spent visiting the rooms is noticeably reduced.
It is curious that works carried out more than thirty years ago are more contemporary and fresh than some of those produced just a decade ago. However, this does not mean that Baldessari continues to be an indisputable reference.
