By combining and colliding the unexpected, the US artist John Baldessari, born 1931, creates conceptual works that raise questions regarding what art is, how art is made, and what art can look like. After concluding in the 1960s that a photographic image or a text were more adequate expressions of his artistic intentions than painting, John Baldessari’s practice took a new direction. Since then, Baldessari has combined subjects from the imagery of popular culture with linguistic examinations, creating works that challenge artistic norms and boundaries.

This catalogue, published to accompany the exhibition at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, spans Baldessari’s entire career and shows the breadth of his artistic practice: you will encounter paintings, photographs, the moving images and the traces of performative acts. The book also includes a wide selection of Baldessari’s own writings from 1968–2011.