John Baldessari

Pure Beauty

Tate Modern 13 October 2009  –  10 January 2010

Explore:

• Interview
• Room 1
• Room 2
• Room 3
• Room 4
• Room 5
• Room 6
• Room 7
• Room 8
• Room 9
• Room 10
• Room 11
• Room 12
• Room 13

Room 8

As Baldessari’s archive of images culled from the film industry grew, he noticed several recurring themes, including the frequent appearance of weapons and violence. In his 1976 Violent Space Series, the violent act is obscured, but this shifts the emphasis to the responses surrounding it, whether horrified stares or the proximity of the feet of curious onlookers. What is hidden is as important as what is revealed, heightening the sense of tension.

Human behaviour is also the subject of Virtues and Vices (for Giotto), a large-scale work pairing images found in a memorabilia shop in Hollywood, with the seven deadly vices below and seven cardinal virtues above. Inspired by the use of space and large areas of single colour in Italian frescoes, Baldessari imbues the empty space between the ‘virtues’ and ‘vices’ – the space most viewers find themselves in – with new meaning.

Developments in printing techniques enabled Baldessari to work on a larger scale. At this time he also abandoned the standard rectangular canvas or photographic format and began combining numerous images to create unconventional shapes hanging in balance.