John Baldessari's Cremation Project

John Baldessari was born in 1931 in National City, California and continues to live and create art in California (John Baldessari Bio). “[Baldessari] attended San Diego State University and did post-graduate work at Otis Art Institute, Chouinard Art Institute and the University of California at Berkeley”, he then continued to teach from 1970-1988; Baldessari went back to teaching from 1966-2007 (John Baldessari Bio). With over 200 solo exhibitions around the world, Baldessari uses multiple mediums for his works covering paintings, books, films, billboards and more (John Baldessari Bio). Artsy.net describes Baldessari as, “commonly associated with Conceptual or Minimalist art, though he has called this characterization ‘a little bit boring’”
During The Cremation Project, Baldessari had been relocated to his hometown and began teaching at Cal Arts, which is where and when this piece was created (Yale). ‘I will not make any more boring art’ was Baldessari’s first print piece, bringing a significant meaning to his new inspiration and mindset of his art (MoMa). This piece was originally created at the College Of Art and Design in Nova Scotia by Baldessari’s students; their teacher had suggested to write the phrase repeatedly on his walls, which when he returned to the school, the task was completed (MoMa). This assignment was meant to be a comical task of punishment or “detention task”, although it meant to be one of the defining works of Baldessari. Baldessari took what his students had created, and filmed himself writing out the phrase repeatedly page by page until the ink ran out of his pen (YouTube). He (John Baldessari) believed his art to be based on mental concepts and “described his conceptual works as ‘what I thought art should be, not what somebody else would think art would be. You know, received wisdom, what you would get in school. And so a lot of my work was about questioning this received wisdom’
John Baldessari is a mischievous and humorous artist, who strongly believes “art is art” (YouTube). All explanations of Baldessari’s techniques, subject matter, and artworks can be easily explained by the artist himself. Baldessari is no stranger to the expression of his work. With no doubt, Baldessari is a “pure strategist”, and displays this greatly through his art (Khan Academy). Clearly the works, processes, and perspective of John Baldessari began as oddly justified, however Baldessari makes art as he wants it to be, not as others will possibly oppose it. The art was meant to be judged, and bring up conversations between viewers if it was truly art or not; this was the objective and purpose of his works. Because of Baldessari’s tremendous success, and popularity in modern art, he will continue to influence many upcoming artists, along with creating new opportunities for his viewers to perceive art as “just art.” John Baldessari’s major interest in puzzling his viewers with his works due to the juxtapositions he is so fond of is found is all of his works. The Cremation Project was a highly influential turning point in John Baldessari’s career as a conceptual artist; it alone changed his career influencing him to always experiment, take chances and bring further humour to his