Sol LeWitt

A day in the year 1970, The Californian artist John Baldessari looked back over the paintings That he had done, over a period of almost two decades.

And he decided to burn them all.

Baldessari, his career had begun in the 1950s by sticking to the tradition. He was in his twenties, and he was still figuring out who he was as an artist, and most importantly, who he wanted to be. The result is a stock of relatively traditional semi-abstract paintings was.

Instead of doing what most artists do and easy way to save you, he picked them up, brought them to a crematorium in the vicinity of San Diego, and had destroyed the entire batch.

The ash-filled 10 large Boxes , Some of which have been stored in a book-shaped urn, engraved with his name, then lived on his bookshelf for the rest of his life. Baldessari combines Some of The Other ashes with Cookie Dough and the resulting cookies were exhibited in the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). To be

"creatively, the destruction of have would say often," Baldessari That an interviewer years later. "It's like the idea of a out of The Ashes rising Phoenix. "

in honor of the ancient works of art, he put a death advertisement in a local newspaper.

Only a year later, he declared to The World :

John Baldessari is on 2. January at the age of 88, That promise is kept also.

Baldessari, born on 17. June 1931 in National City , California, just a few miles from Tijuana on The Mexican border.

He studied art and art education in San Diego, and was almost immediately drawn to the doctrine among the professors at the junior High School , community college, And Then University of California, San Diego. He even spent a summer teaching art to young people in A Camp for young offenders by The Local authority.

Baldessari had already begun experimenting with new forms of art of cremation in the 1970 - including paintings That were text or combinations of text and image.

For example, he printed a deliberately bad photo on a canvas, with nothing But the word "FALSE" underneath it is written.

In another Work , tips For artists who Want to Sell, he painted his dry advice for the creation of commercially appealing artwork - including tips such as, "paintings with light colors sell more quickly than paintings with dark colors".

In the summer of 1970, after the cremation day, he began teaching a course at CalArts, "post-studio art" - i.e. art studio.

As Well as teaching, it was there That he began to make experimental videos, including the now - famous short film by self write "I want more boring art" over and over again on a ruled notebook.

developed as a concept art and a reputation as a cerebral (this is possible code for impenetrable), Baldessari's sense of humour in his Work - sometimes riffing off of The Other concept LeWitt conceptual artists such as Sol.

"The First thing you would say about John is That he omitted," curator Kate Fowle, the BBC says.

"He took his job as an artist very seriously - But he did not take them seriously art. He did not take it seriously The World of art. He understood what it was, of course, But his joy was. Well , he used to say to the people: 'from you just go and look at art - it doesn't matter if you don't like it. just go and see Something , what is resonance at the end' "

As Well as hilarious, she adds, he was great. Very large.

According to artist David Salle , one of the Baldessari friends and CalArts student in the 1970s, he's 6'7" - Something That for a long time, it was "the distinction of being the largest serious artist in The World ".

In the 1980s, the cooperation with the photo-collages - in particular, the old Hollywood Film stills and photos from the Newspapers started.

such A photo, Ms Fowle recalls, was a Film Noir still. In it, a beautiful woman lay back on The Beach , quietly reading a book. Baldessari's text label below this quiet image? "Learning to read. "

He would also disguise often, the people in these photos, with colored stickers, the old price tags. As he told NPR years later: "I just got so tired of looking at these faces. "

"John has the Work requires you to know Something , before you were able to enjoy," Ms Fowle said. "He would mix in words and images, But it was not so, That if you worked really hard you would be on the bottom of The Puzzle . He was not trying to test people. "

the mediation of enjoying the art of others through the teaching of Baldessari's Passion - so much as his own art was.

His gallerist Marian Goodman , tells the BBC: "He gave much to his students - a great thing. He helped them become a significant artist. People came from everywhere to study with him, and were obliged to him for everything That he taught. "

Salle, writing in the "Interview magazine" in the year 2013, as described in the Baldessari's post-studio art class was "legendary".

"[It is] awarded to those of us who notice with sufficient reason, to a sense of the incredible luck to speak exactly in The Right place, at The Right time for the new freedoms in art - we arrived In Time for the birth, so. "

He remained a prolific Creator, even in his 80s.

at the end of 2009, the Tate Modern in London staged a retrospective of his Work - often a signal That an artist is entering the autumn of their career.

Baldessari, however, spent the next two years creates a completely new collection of Work . These were shown at an exhibition at the Garage Museum for Contemporary Art in Moscow in the year 2013.

Two years later, in the year 2015, The Man who began his career by burning his own "boring" pictures to a crisp, The National Medal of Arts by then-US President Barack Obama .

As a Salle a collector, wrote: "a few decades ago, possibly as a "conceptual" art is Something That you, probably, have no time for it, is now in line for a chance, a Baldessari.

"in Spite of - or perhaps because of - John's contrarian nature, he is firmly in the Canon . "

Source of news: bbc.com