Yours in Art. John Baldessari and Konrad Fischer

A presentation at Dorothee and Konrad Fischer Archive

July 21, 2020 — January, 3, 2021

  • John Baldessari, „I am making art", 1971, Filmstill, 18:40 min, b&w, sound, © John Baldessari, Courtesy of The Estate of John Baldessari

John Baldessari, the conceptual artist born on the West Coast of the USA in 1931 and deceased in early 2020, was strongly convinced that art is above all communication.

In his conceptually conceived works, he combined visual and linguistic information with subtle wit to create profound commentaries on art and life. In 1969, Baldessari diagnosed: “The World Has Too Much Art—I Have Made Too Much Objects—What to Do?” He consequently decided to at least “no longer make boring art” and, in 1970, burned most of his early paintings. From then on, he worked with photography, text, collage, and film.

In 1971, Baldessari exhibited for the first time with Konrad Fischer. Since 1967, Fischer had been presenting positions of minimal and conceptual art in a gallery space on Neubrückstrasse in Düsseldorf. The selected correspondence between the artist and gallerist—from the time they met in 1969 to the documenta in 1972—tells of their first joint projects, as well as of their friendly relationship.

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