About this artwork
An influential pioneer of Conceptual Art, John Baldessari began appropriating film stills, advertisements, and found photographs in the 1980s to examine the social impact of mass culture. Using photographic excerpts in unorthodox arrangements, he highlights dissonance and gaps in meaning to undermine expectations for how images function. The Fallen Easel employs a framed, multipart composition to suggest its own physical instability and thereby underscore the “fall” of easel painting from the apex of fine art to a grammar of simple color combinations. The colored dots, placed to obscure identities or expressions, additionally frustrate conventional markers of meaning in photographs.
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Status
- On View, Gallery 10
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Department
- Photography and Media
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Artist
- John Baldessari
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Title
- The Fallen Easel
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Place
- United States (Artist's nationality)
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Date
- Made 1988
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Medium
- Photolithographs (9)
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Edition
- 20 of 35
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Dimensions
- 53 × 63.4 cm; 52 × 43.5 cm; 35 × 170 cm; 142 × 43 cm; other various dimensions
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Credit Line
- Gift of David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg
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Reference Number
- 1991.1256.1-9
Extended information about this artwork
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