John Balderassi

John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020) was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lived and worked 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 created thousands of works which 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. Landmarks, the public art program of The University of Texas at Austin, exhibited I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art (1971) and archived an essay dedicated to Baldessari and his work on their website. His work influenced that of Cindy Sherman, David Salle, Annette Lemieux, and Barbara Kruger among others.