53 Quotes by John Baldessari

  • Author John Baldessari
  • Quote

    The idea of vaudeville clowns and court jesters is always to show the flaw, to point out what’s not working and why it’s not coherent.

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  • Author John Baldessari
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    I don’t try to be funny. It’s just that I feel the world is a little bit absurd and off-kilter and I’m sort of reporting.

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  • Author John Baldessari
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    If I saw the art around me that I liked, then I wouldn’t do art.

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  • Author John Baldessari
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    I was always interested in language. I thought, why not? If a painting, by the normal definition of the term, is paint on canvas, why can’t it be painted words on canvas?

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  • Author John Baldessari
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    I used to jokingly say, “I don’t teach art. I’m an art doctor.” Students come to me and say, “My art’s sick,” and we help them make it well.

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  • Author John Baldessari
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    I didn’t see painters doing paintings of glassware and glass shelves or sand dunes and receding snow fences. Why does that interest photographers and not artists?

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  • Author John Baldessari
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    I think the term ‘conceptual art’ is a useful term for writers, a basket to put people in, like Pop Art or Impressionism or whatever.

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