M HKA Ensembles

Print, 14 x ( 22.8 x 33 cm).

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp.

John Baldessari (a concept art icon) incorporates trauma as Bruce Nauman by the use of repetition and boredom. The boredom of Baldessari is irreverent, like blowing bubbles but not as traumatic as within the work of Bruce Nauman. Even ‘Throwing 3 Balls in the Air to get a Straight Line (best of 36 attempts)’is more playful, he enjoys repetition of simple experiences towards pure beauty. He searches for that which is good, to find the basics of what is easy going. Typical to this work is that Baldessari is trying to find a balance & re-unite two different spheres of experience: first the iconical sphere in recognizing culture in the media world (identification) and secondly the sphere of abstraction. It is a moment of pure experience of color, pure expression of shape & proportion (renaissance). These balls represent the abstraction of reality. The red color confronts the blue of the sky. Blue is his favorite color as it stands for endowment. Weltschmerz, pain is unknown in his work. Formally this work is atypical/a demarche for Baldessari but reducible to his own spiritual specificities and related to Fluxus and John Cage. John Baldessari is more adherent to the European tradition / avant-garde (happening) through his performative action.