About the artwork:
Language and communication through imagery is a longtime interest for Baldessari, as he focuses our attention on the disjunction between image, words, and their conventional meanings and usages. Emojis, small icons increasingly used as a form of electronic communication, are predominantly used in everyday digital speech by millennials. Ever focused on the future of language and its strangeness, Baldessari’s fascination with emojis is not surprising, as they are a cross between glyph, image, pictograph, and icon.
Open-ended in their usage, their meanings can be as simple as the object actually represented, or host a complex, nuanced personal or cultural interpretation. When paired with a disjointed text or title, an emoji creates a plurality of interpretations and ambiguities in communication as the viewer tries to construct meaning. Emojis are often used in place of words, or in accompaniment to words to provide ironic or humorous subtext. The admixture of image and text in modern communication has parallels to the way Baldessari adds color and form to found imagery, distorting their original purpose.
About the artist:
John Baldessari was a major American artist known for conceptual appropriation and rearrangements of found imagery. The artist often juxtaposes images culled from film stills or stock photos in ways that can at times verge on a sculptural scale. Baldessari's most iconic device is the application of color circles over the faces of figures in photographs—negating ideas of identity, intention and hierarchy.
John Baldessari (1931-2020) received both a BA and an MA from San Diego State College in California. The artist also studied at: the University of California at Berkeley; the University of California at Los Angeles; the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles; and the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles; all in California. Starting in the 1960s, Baldessari was a central pillar of the California art scene.
Solo exhibitions of Baldessari's work have taken place internationally, including at: the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany; Marian Goodman Gallery in London, England; Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris, France; The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; the Tate Modern in London, UK; the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, California; among others.
Group exhibitions that have shown the artist's work have taken place at: the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; Saatchi Gallery in London, UK; and MoMA in New York City; among others.
Baldessari was the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1988.
Specs:
This artwork has been generously contributed to the ART FOR LA fundraiser by Gemini G.E.L at Joni Moisant Weyl. 100% of proceeds will benefit Grief & Hope, an organization raising funds to support artists and art workers affected by the devastating Los Angeles fires of January 2025.More
- Framed: 40.4 x 33.6 x 2.0 in.
- Edition 26 of 50
- Signed
- This work is available via live auction only at an event on February 28. Please reach out to privateclient@platformart.com if you’re interested.
