John Baldesarri

‘ I will not make any more boring art’ – said John Baldessari – a painter desperate to escape convention. Baldessari went on to become a prominent Californian conceptual artist in the 1990’s with his works using photography and found images.

What particularly interests me about his work is his use of chance, which he very intentionally deployed as a means to making artworks that didn’t follow the established art conventions. I find a striking creativity and vitality in his practice and the works of artists who embrace accident and chance – such as Dora Maurer, Karla Black and Chantel Akerman. This prompted me to employ chance in my own creative process this year. The relinquishing of control is uncomfortable, but liberating and rewarding.

Baldessari was using chance in order to avoid aesthetic choices. He departed completely from painting, turning to photography, because he found it a medium that lent itself better to using chance. He developed strategies with photography to completely eliminate aesthetic decisions. For example, in Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line (1973), he prevented any intentional composition when taking the photographs. The work involved several photographers he had engaged, and three balls being thrown up in the air. As the three balls were thrown in the air the photographers were instructed to simply try to capture them creating a straight line. This would be done thirty-six times – this being the number of frames in the photographic film. Acting on this sole objective the photographers were unable to use their usual photographic techniques such as setting up a good composition. The resulting photographs were the result of chance compositions devoid of aesthetical intentions.

Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line (Best of Thirty-Six Attempts) by John Baldessari. Photographs taken using a process that deliberately created chance compositions (Baldessari, 1973)

.Baldessari first captured attention with satirical works that made fun of the absurdities he saw in traditional art and the art market. Baldessari though went on to challenge not only the establishment but himself as an artist and indeed the very concept of what art is. Much of his work is concerned with a need to explore the concept of the true nature of art – asking himself questions such as ‘’Well why is this art? Why isn’t this art?’’ . He made works that explored the fundamental question of how much art can be reduced before it is no longer art. In the video work I am Making Art, he films himself as he makes various arm movements while saying “I am making art,” after each gesture.