John Baldessari - Contemporary Art Evening Sale New York Thursday, March 4, 2010 | Phillips

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  • Provenance


    Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Athens

  • Exhibited


    Athens, Bernier/Eliades Gallery, John Baldessari: Vertical/Horizontal Series, December 11, 2003 - January 31, 2004

  • Catalogue Essay


    "At a certain point I had these huge folders, each one classified according to subject matter or genre…Then I cropped the cheap, recycled imagery to give exhausted images new meaning, or at least something other than their original meaning. I’m basically reassembling atoms to give them a meaning that’s more au courant. I realized—and maybe we share something here—that you can tap into a language that might be more universal than art. People go to movies and have them in their minds,"  (John Baldessari quoted in T. Griffin, “In Conversation: John Baldessari & Jeremy Blake” Artforum, 2004).
    John Baldessari’s work has played a large role in defining conceptual art: experimenting with various media to illuminate ideas over product, Baldessari has challenged his viewers’ perspectives of fine art as a creative vehicle. He has long examined the qualities of absence—through reappropriating images removed from context; and by enhancing the missing parts of recognizable images through color and shape. He often inserts words or phrases subjectively, ironically and often humorously, encouraging viewers to consider their own biases and cultural interpretations.
    The present lot exemplifies this use of language and found imagery by juxtaposing a photograph of a gymnast with the word “ATTEMPT”—her concentrated expression is reduced to futility by a word that alludes to impending failure. Indeed Baldessari succeeds here in illuminating the manipulative qualities of language.

9

Vertical Series: Attempt

2003

Archival digital print mounted on sintra in artist’s frame.

78 x 19 1/4 in. (198 x 49 cm).

Estimate
$90,000 - 120,000 

Sold for $98,500

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

4 Mar 2010
New York