BIOGRAPHICAL CATALOG OF THE MODEM'S COVERS AUTHORS

64 Modem New-York / LA Fall-Winter 2009 Cover by JOHN BALDESSARI 2009 CONTEMPORARY ARTIST John Baldessari was born in National City, California in 1931. He received his BA and MA from San Diego State College, CA (1949-53 and 1955-57, respectively) and studied at University of California, Berkeley (1954-55); UCLA (1955); Otis Art Institute 91957-59); and the Chouinard Art Institute, LA. “The artist has been an innovative force in contemporary art, redefining its parameters to include its role as a visual evocation of language, and leading the way in bringing photography as a medium to the forefront of contemporary art, a movement which changed the international art world forever”. John Baldessari ’s trajectory, developed over five decades of conceptual practice, began with painting and later moved to photo-based work, embracing film, video, books, prints, objects and installation along the way. Baldessari’s use of appropriation, alteration, cropping, erasure, and montage to disrupt a narrative or to construct an entirely new meaning out of recombi- ned fragments, has been utilized in disparate ways in different bodies of works spanning his career. In recent years, he has also been investigating new issues of painting in his work. He was honored by The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. He was the recipient of a Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa, National University of Ireland in April 2006.”