"A Brief History of John Baldessari," godfather of conceptual art

[Video Link] Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, the talented fellows who made Catfish and the Paranormal Activity sequels, made a fantastically fun video about artist John Baldessari. Tom Waits narrates.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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jackbird

Misspelling Tom Waits’ name is egregious enough, but it appears onscreen within the first 30 seconds…
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=749997097 Rosin Ffield

This dude’s appearance and voice remind me a little of the voice and face of Bob Dean–the high rank military officer with “cosmic” clearance that blew the wistle on extraterrestrial presence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxED0t1ANys

Nice to hear Tom Wait’s voice too!
flatfive

biennALE !!
geoffrey ludwig

godmother would be Yoko Ono?
rattypilgrim

I’ve crossed paths with Tom Waits several times in my neck of the woods and he’s always been a humble and self effacing man.
I get Baldessari but Waits’ work has more depth and will speak to more people (at least those with soul) for a long time to come. But people will have to seek him out. He won’t be ensconced in a multi-million dollar art institution the very presence of which validates monied people’s appreciation of “art” and others who don’t know what to think about what they’re looking at.
- timquinn
  
  stretching to make the point, Waits is not the poster boy for obscure and forgotten, but hey, it’s your point so go for it. Museums are a mixed bag, we say museums are where art goes to die. They may try to make a temple of their own grandeur, those rich philanthropic bastards, but the art doesn’t always play along.
  
  On a side note, I just left a gig at LACMA where I was installing art. They have prints stored in rooms all over the museum. I used to have a gag when we would enter one of these store rooms. “How many drawers do I have to open before I find a Baldessari, a Nauman or a Ruscha?” It was very frequently the first drawer. Those guys are over-represented, to say the least. Still, LACMA has one of Baldi’s greatest works, a painting done by a sign painter that says, on a gray background, “Everything is purged from this painting but art, no ideas have entered this work.”
  
  That is hilarious! High comedy! Who would have thought . . . I still get a chuckle after 35 years.
  - rattypilgrim
    
    I meant to infer that in the future Waits’ work will have to be sought out by other generations while the Baldessaris of the world will maintain a certain profile perpetuated by the museums and galleries that have a stake in the game. Not that he is obscure today. Sorry I didn’t word that better.
    - timquinn
      
      still doesn’t work for me. Waits work will survive because it has a wide audience, Baldessari will fade into obscurity once his collectors have died, the appeal is too specific to it’s time. I meant to say that the desire for the bigg wigs to live through their philanthropy usually gets distorted and even re-directed after they are gone. Case in point, The Getty, not doing the job JP wanted them to do, but turning out to be a good citizen in the world after all.
      - rattypilgrim
        
        From your mouth to God’s ears.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=749997097 Rosin Ffield
  
  What Waits’ puts out in the world comes from the heart, even his humour/laughter part (i’m sure you know this). Thus, it has depth and can move others and make their hearts resonate.
  The other guy creates from intent to be arrogant, cerebral, “provocative”, desire to be noticed, from cinicism–your average putrified stench of “contemporarry art” –the one promoted by the big money. As such he can resonate with such streaks.
  
  Of course, with the bonification of time the conceptual dude becomes somewhat cosy and nostalgia-inducing just as any old photograph that carries the texture and flavour of years now passed.
http://twitter.com/magicpeacelove PeaceLove

I have a Baldessari “Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell” tee-shirt I got years ago at a Baldessari retrospective at LACMA. Still the coolest tee-shirt I own!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef013484ef30be970c-popup