Existing comment:
John Baldessari (b. 1931, American)
"The Best Way to Do Art" flyer to Lucy Lippard, 1971
Conceptual artist John Baldessari began his career as a painter. However, in 1966 he started to integrate text and photography into his paintings as a means of questioning the primacy of the medium among the fine arts. Eventually abandoning paint altogether, Baldessari turned to "intermedia" practices such as performance, installation, and mail art, which he used to humorously reject art world hierarchies. In this mail art flyer sent to the critic and curator Lucy Lippard, who was an important proponent of conceptualism, he recounts a young artist's gradual move away from painting. Realizing the medium's limitations, he concludes: "It's difficult to put a painting in a mailbox."
Conceptual artist John Baldessari began his career as a painter. However, in 1966 he started to integrate text and photography into his paintings as a means of questioning the primacy of the medium among the fine arts. Eventually abandoning paint altogether, Baldessari turned to "intermedia" practices such as performance, installation, and mail art, which he used to humorously reject art world hierarchies. In this mail art flyer sent to the critic and curator Lucy Lippard, who was an important proponent of conceptualism, he recounts a young artist's gradual move away from painting. Realizing the medium's limitations, he concludes: "It's difficult to put a painting in a mailbox."
-- Mary Savig |