Staff Favorites: "The News: Three Men Leaving House" by John Baldessari

 
John Baldessari, The News: Three Men Leaving the House, 2014 (as installed at Blue Sky), from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation.

John Baldessari, The News: Three Men Leaving the House, 2014 (as installed at Blue Sky), from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation.

While Blue Sky is temporarily closed to the public, members of our staff will be sharing some of their favorite pieces by John Baldessari as a way to provide more virtual access to our current exhibition, Master of Appropriation.

“The News: Three Men Leaving House…”

2014 Screenprint

“A conceptual artist shows no bounds, fears not the unknown or the element of surprise. A conceptual art uses ideas to drive their imaginative use of medium and technique. For some, the found object or the found image is the point of departure; there it presents itself, waiting to be turned into something anew. If the conceptual artist has a job to make a meaning; the viewer has the responsibility to discover a meaning. If successful at all, the meaning--discerned through the clever if seemingly haphazard combination of images and words--begets an enhanced view on the world as we know it. 

One from his series, The News, and culled visually from events of the day, Baldessari creates word/visual play, where associations run rampant and histories are triggered. I think: war torn, chaos, disaster, heroes, the dance of life upended, the survivors who stand solid. But what of the simple everyday actions taking place just moments before like “ leaving the house,” and the quaint gesture of “flower planters near the door?” How do we reconcile the differences? Yet this image, at once arbitrary, thoughtful, made-up and real, feels particularly apropos. And in today’s new normal, we’re needing such visual cues to help us make sense of what is happening around (to) us. “

Molly Newgard, Blue Sky Executive Director

Some additional links for further investigation:

 
 
Blue Sky, Oregon Center for the Photographic Artsstaff favorites