I couldn’t wait to get to John Baldessari’s exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum, his first major US show in over twenty years. When I heard that the College Group at the Met was sponsoring a late night viewing party, complete with music and food, I knew that the night to relive my glory days and pull out the trusty old college ID had come. Pretty sure my slow sipping of a glass of red wine and endless attention to John Baldessari’s later works separated me from the revelers focused on dancing to the beat of the opening band the Beachniks, but it really was exciting to be amidst a group of young art lovers celebrating in the Met after hours. The exhibit itself spans a vast portion of Baldessari’s career; definitely take note of how elements of his earliest works, like body parts (God Nose, 1965) continue to be his focus in later pieces like Nose and Ears, (Head with nose), 2006.
I particularly enjoyed his photographs that had been painted over and attached—pieces like Heel, 1986, The Overlap Series: Jogger with Cosmic Event, 2000 and The Duress Series, 2003. In The Overlap Series, Baldessari experimented with photographs printed on clear acetate, attaching and reversing them. Two seemingly incongruent scenes, a black-and-white still from a Buck Rogers movie and a color snapshot of a local jogger become intertwined, the new, fused image brought to life with bright, acrylic scratches of color. Images like this are the fire behind Baldessari’s work; a unique and somewhat odd vision that allows him to take everyday shapes, images and primary colors and turn them into something completely new and eye-opening. This is a main reason he has been so influential in contemporary/conceptual art—he highlights subjects that have historically been very important in the evolution of art; eyes for emotion, the ability to create a realistic human form, and upends that focus—into separation and abstraction.
This show is a must see, for its expertly curated evolution of style and subject matter and more importantly, Baldessari’s witty commentary on the conventions of art, mass-media, and his heightened awareness of the world around us. Huge kudos to the College Group at the Met for bringing students (and delicious hors d’oeurves) to this important exhibition. xx MS
John Baldessari, Pure Beauty, is on view through January 9 at the Metropolitan Museum.
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| Overlap Series, Jogger with Cosmic Event |
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| The Duress Series |
I couldn’t wait to get to John Baldessari’s exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum, his first major US show in over twenty years. When I heard that the College Group at the Met was sponsoring a late night viewing party, complete with music and food, I knew that the night to relive my glory days and pull out the trusty old college ID had come. Pretty sure my slow sipping of a glass of red wine and endless attention to John Baldessari’s later works separated me from the revelers focused on dancing to the beat of the opening band the Beachniks, but it really was exciting to be amidst a group of young art lovers celebrating in the Met after hours. The exhibit itself spans a vast portion of Baldessari’s career; definitely take note of how elements of his earliest works, like body parts (God Nose, 1965) continue to be his focus in later pieces like Nose and Ears, (Head with nose), 2006. 
I particularly enjoyed his photographs that had been painted over and attached—pieces like Heel, 1986, The Overlap Series: Jogger with Cosmic Event, 2000 and The Duress Series, 2003. In The Overlap Series, Baldessari experimented with photographs printed on clear acetate, attaching and reversing them. Two seemingly incongruent scenes, a black-and-white still from a Buck Rogers movie and a color snapshot of a local jogger become intertwined, the new, fused image brought to life with bright, acrylic scratches of color. Images like this are the fire behind Baldessari’s work; a unique and somewhat odd vision that allows him to take everyday shapes, images and primary colors and turn them into something completely new and eye-opening. This is a main reason he has been so influential in contemporary/conceptual art—he highlights subjects that have historically been very important in the evolution of art; eyes for emotion, the ability to create a realistic human form, and upends that focus—into separation and abstraction.
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