Cremation Project 1970
This week the Gallery of Lost Art looks at the unusual decision of the America artist John Baldessari to burn much of his early work.
John Baldessari is today known as one of the leading conceptual artists of his generation, using found or appropriated images and exploring the associative power of language. Like many experimental artists Baldessari began his career in the more traditional realm of painting. Rather than merely moving on from these early works, Baldessari decided in 1970 to have them destroyed.
John Baldessari’s studio with works gathered together in preparation for Cremation Project 1970
Photo: John Baldessari
Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman © John Baldessari
In the summer of 1970 all paintings in the artist’s possession dating from the thirteen years 1953–66 were incinerated at a local crematorium. He took the precaution of making slides of most of them but the exact number of works destroyed is unknown.
Baldessari conceived of the destruction of his early works as an artwork in itself called Cremation Project and in a letter to a critic shortly afterwards he wrote, ‘I really think it is my best piece to date’.
Find the full story and explore the last traces of many more lost works here
