Art 21

John Baldessari:
- intrested in things that you dont call art. what could i do to this to make it art. how could i change peoples minds?-- challenges the limits of what art can be, soemthing can be art because i said it was.
- experiment, throwing three balls in the air to make a line-- not necessarily possibly, but why not? sort of like studies with no point or preconcieved end point
- Making art is making a choice; the decision to even make it all
- use of humor as a tool in art, because humor is part of life. why should that be separate?
-"what interests me in life is the absurdity in life"
- Bre! his assistant that printed my junior show is in the art 21!
- conceptual art, minimal art... a little boring... a lot of things i did want to shed, and one of them was being tasteful. right red with right blue. I decided to be systematic about it. and use the color wheel
- images being visually appeasing...
- religious upbringing, literature from reading bible, sense of moral obligation-- late starter in art, it didnt do 'social worker' miracles.
- teaching is about communication. have to see the light in the students eyes that they get it, try different approaches until they get it. art is about communication. the art i do is what im talking about in the classroom
- if youre looking at two things, dont look at them, look between them. we prioritize, space between is very important. 
- words and images are just a way we communicate. why they had to be in different baskets.
- juxtaposition of words and images, " humans communicate through words and images so theres no reason the two should separate"
- i probably have an idea that theres a word behind them, thinking like a writer or poet builds his words.
- dog walker, trouble with school and work, every monday had to bring work to JB, "i think he taught me to be human when it comes to the work, theres something very humble about the way he works"


Mark Bradford:

- selective system of choosing, "I only take signs that have to do with business"

- "its just information in the city, you see it all the time"

- “My practice is both collage and décollage at the same time.“Décollage you take it away, and then collage, I immediately add it right back... Sometimes you cant put something on top, you gotta retrieve something thats under the bottom"

- "issues of abstraction, modernism, abstract expressionism... people say the work is collage, if it's on canvas it's a painting”.

-"bodies of ideas... the post modern condition, i felt like i discovered friends in these books in these writers... got me really really enthusiastic.."

- "create the feeling being outdoors and indoors at the same time" (installation)

- antebellum skirt lakers-- idea of goal to shoot hoop but hinderance...always get up... regardless that theyre (roadblocks) are there, you keep going.. and I make the shot. I always make the shot"

Robert Ryman:

- Ryman’s work explodes the classical distinctions between art as object and as surface—between sculpture and painting, between structure and ornament—emphasizing instead the role that perception and context play in creating an aesthetic experience. Ryman isolates the most basic of components (material, scale, and support), enforcing limitations that allow the viewer to focus on the physical presence of the work in space.

- paintings are paradoxically "realist" according to the artist's own lexicon

- "the real purpose of painting is to give pleasure.. it can be the story, history.. but you don't have to know all those things to recieve pleasure from a painting... like music.. you can just listen to the sounds"

- "You played on a structure, learn your instrument, and played with in your structure....i would learn about paint.. and then I would learn what you could do with the paint"

- "in painting something has to look easy, even if it's not easy... it's important part of painting painting that it has to have that feeling that it just happened"

- "representational painting-- you tell a story with symbols, telling a story.....i wasnt interested in narrative, telling a story... i thought the painting should just be a painting and just be what its about, not about other things"

- "just to do whatever you wanted and the audience had to come to you, or not... i wasn't going to be an entertainer"

-" in all of my paintings i discover things. sometimes im surprised at the result. but i know what im doing. even if i dont know what im doing"

- “result of experiments. test things and materials. how fast things are going to work how the light is going to work”— i could do more exp.

- “solving problems working on the painting and a visual experience

- “i dont have any assistants. i like to do it all myself. i like to know whats going on all the time

- “i have to become not afraid of the paint.. the cost of the paint.. not afraid of wasting it...put some on my hand, wasted it.. so i would not be afraid of it

- “finding out what i can do. when i finish the problem i dont have to go on with it. im interested in finding out what else i can do,...more of a chalenge for me.

- “i would never show a painting i didnt feel right about. they werent not good. but not what i wanted at the moment. usually i work them through so they are okay

- “light is not painted into the painting as illusionisitic. work with light...

- “not abstract, involved with real, visual aspect of what you are looking at. wood, see the paint and the metal, how it works with the wall and the light, real surface. i don't use any illusion. its a real experience”— could use the room more.

- “paintings move outward aesthetically, go out into the space in the room. what you're seeing is what it is. anything else will dilude it or disturb it.

- “i never thought of white as being a color, white can do things that other colors cannot do. white has a tendency to make things visible. you can see more of the nuance.

- “square has become so natural to me, its an equal sided space that you can work with, didnt have the feeling of a landscape, or window or doorway that we associate with windows or doorways, its a neutral kind of space.

“after i finish a group of paintings I’m not sure what to do next… wait a while.. slowly things fall into place… slowly realize what could be done what interests me in the moment.

Bruce Nauman:

- Art as an action, any action we do in everyday life could be made art via the frame of repetition or over exertion or exaggeration. (speech and movement ) our actions as performance and thus art.-- true source of art is a rather simple concept. 

- recreation, Fountain piece referencing Duchamp.. which is also critical

- making things riskful, things that seem simple or mundane, reveling the complexity in the simplicity- mouse and cat being captured, "like a little meditation.. cant really watch any part of the screen because you'll miss something... being aware the whole time". not seeing through a frame of scrutiny [ ironic because the mouse is a symbol for scrutiny]

- "a true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths"-- artists dont reveal anything new, just show old truths in new light-- idea that I am after.

- looking at life from a more objective view, consideration for all the chaos, mundane, messy, gruesome things.. not just after the beautiful glorified object, in fact, glorifying the opposite. 

- "requires paying a lot of attention"

- "intentions that changes it... cuz i said so"

-mathematics, things that you can prove, change the structure of mathematics- hd to be really clear and elegant, having to say things out loud, forces you to be clear, cant just bumble through" "making sure that what i'm doing is really clear, then it's available... changes the structure of how you can think about art, and its there for you, and those are wonderful things"