CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 8/5/2020

Taking inspiration from John Baldessari

In 2005, the pioneering west coast conceptualist John Baldessari (1931–2020) was invited to write a letter to a young artist. He stated, I started my career as a young artist in 1957. There was no money in art then as there is today. Therefore one did art because one needed to do so. I taught public school five days a week and painted when I could. I got married and participated in having two children which made it more difficult to do art.
I lived in National City, not an art center.
My advice? Don’t go into art for fame and fortune. Do it because you cannot not do it. Being an artist is a combination of talent and obsession. Live in New York, LA, Köln, or London.
As for money, if you’re talented and obsessed, you’ll find a solution.
Today, we’re taking inspiration from this letter and Baldessari’s lifelong search for new ways of thinking about art. Featured here are stills from his iconic 1971 video piece, I Am Making Art, which parodies body art and the idea that every action, movement, and intention might be seen as an art act. It is reproduced from Walther König’s superb new monograph, published to accompany the retrospective currently on view at Moderna Museet in Stockholm.