- John Baldessari: Pure BeautyOur PickBy Jessica Morgan, Leslie Jones
- John Baldessari: A Catalogue Raisonne of Prints and Multiples 1971-2007By Sharon Coplan Hurowitz, Wendy Weitman
- John Baldessari: A Print Retrospective from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family FoundationBy Hunter Drohojowska-Philip, John Baldessari
- John Baldessari: National CityBy Hugh Davies, Anne Rorimer, John Baldessari
- Conceptual Art: A Critical AnthologyBy Alexander Alberro, Blake Stimson
Important Art by John Baldessari
Tips For Artists Who Want To Sell (1966 - 1968)
While teaching at a night school in the University of California, Baldessari came upon a sheet left in a classroom that dispensed advice to artists. It led to a number of works, of which Tips For Artists Who Want To Sell is an important example. Tips is one of his breakthrough works: it abandons familiar imagery, adopts language as its vehicle, and slyly suggests that behind some supposedly great art may be merely a series of cynical ploys. In 1970, Baldessari burned many of his early paintings as part of a work titled Cremation Project, but he saved works such as these, done after 1966, in which he offered satirical checklists of what to include in a painting if it is to sell. A clear stab at the art market, he uses humor to poke fun at the absurdity of traditional art and "how-to" art instruction manuals. Its comedy also derives from the contrast of his simple advice with the grandeur of the Abstract Expressionist painting that had recently dominated the American art market.
Commissioned Painting: A Painting by George Walker (1969)
The hard-edge painter Al Held is reported to have said that "Conceptual art is just pointing at things." Taking this accusation literally, Baldessari decided to create a series of Commissioned Painting, hiring sign painters to paint photorealistic images of a hand pointing to an object. The act of pointing demands the viewer's attention to be directed to a specific area, but the genius of the piece lies in the questions it leaves us with: why should we look here, and not elsewhere? Do images always direct us to one, and only one message? Although this painting includes the caption "A Painting By George Walker," we also understand that the idea was Baldessari's, hence we are led to questioning the nature of artistic authorship. He has said of this series, "The point was to organize these [sign painters] in a different context and provide them with an unhackneyed subject that would attract the attention of a viewer interested in modern art." He has said that working on the project felt like being a choreographer.
I Am Making Art (1971)
In this video piece, Baldessari makes several arm movements, reciting the phrase, "I am making art," after each gesture. Baldessari has always been conscious of the power of choice in artistic practice - like choosing to paint something red rather than blue, for example. Here, he carefully associates the choice of arm movements with the artistic choices that a painter or sculptor may make, concluding that choice is a form of art in itself. But he also confronts one of the fascinating problems that unpinned the work of many early Conceptual artists: how much can art be reduced and simplified before it stops being art at all? Baldessari offers no definitive answer, but he suggests that the gap between art and the ordinary, between art and life, may be imperceptible.
Influences and Connections

- Richard Prince
- David Salle
- Jack Goldstein
- James Welling
- Troy Brauntuch
- Cindy Sherman
- Pat Steir
- Lawrence Weiner