AzizArt Jan2020

A 2007 publication from Gemini is
God Nose, a cast aluminum piece
that is designed to hang from the
ceiling.Baldessari also contributed
to the 2008 Artists for Obama
portfolio, a set of prints in a
limited edition of 150 published
by Gemini G.E.L..
Performance and film
Originally conceived in 1970,
Unrealised Proposal for Cadavre
Piece would have visitors look
through a peep-hole and see a
dead male body laid out with its
feet towards them inside a
climate-controlled vitrine,made to
resemble Andrea Mantegna’s
painting, The Lamentation over
the Dead Christ (1480). Hans
Ulrich Obrist, the co-director of
London’s Serpentine Gallery and
Klaus Biesenbach, the director of
MoMA PS1, first attempted to
realize Baldessari’s idea in 2011
and the resulting paperwork of
failed attempts to procure a
willing male cadaver was
displayed in the exhibition "11
Rooms" at the Manchester
International Festival.
Sculpture
Baldessari created his first ever
sculpture, Beethoven's Trumpet
(with Ear) Opus # 127, 130, 131,
132, 133, 135 (2007), a series of 6
resin, fiberglass, bronze, aluminum,
and electronics components in the
form of a gigantic bronze trumpet
extending off an oversized ear
sculpted on the wall.When the
viewer speaks into the trumpet, the
sounds causes a short recital of a
phrase from a Beethoven string
quartet. Baldessari has gone on to
create sculptural works that often
incorporate resin, bronze, and
steel, such as the approximately 2.4
m carrot (Fake Carrot, 2016) and an
elongated bronze figure trapped
wearing a wooden barrel in a nod
to Giacometti (Giacometti
Variation, 2018).
Baldessari's film Police Drawing
documents a 1971 performance,
Police Drawing Project. In this
piece, the artist walked into a class
of art students who had never seen
him, set up a video camera to
document the proceedings, and left
the room. Subsequently, a police
artist entered and, based on the
students' testimony, sketched a
likeness of the artist.In the blackand-white
video I Am Making Art
(1971), Baldessari stands facing the
camera; for nearly 20 minutes