"A New Sense of Order (The Art Teacher Story) – A friend of mine who taught painting had all his students stand on one feet only (in front of the easels) while painting. He believed that if the student was physically off balance a new sense of order would emerge in their work."
"Although the term ‘concept art’ had been used in the early 1960s (Henry Flynt of the Fluxus group described his performance pieces as ‘concept art’ in 1961), it was not until the late sixties that conceptual art as a definable movement emerged." (on the term Conceptual Art, Tate website)
John Baldessari's conceptual art practice dates back into 1956, while he was still making paintings he started writing down ideas. In 1970 he cremated all his paintings prior to 1966 and baked some of the ashes into cookies. In the following years when Baldessari was in his forties, he taught a course at CalArts titled "Post Studio Art". In this context he made a list of art ideas for 1st class students if they have no ideas of their own from which to make a piece. Before and after that Baldessari is repeatedly reflecting within his own art practice on how to give advice to young artists. This came along with the motivation to question traditional art practice, to form a new approach in making art, and his interest in art concepts, to make art priorly from ideas. 1968 he wrote "Advice to Young Artists," a list which starts "1.) Uccello tried very hard to capture space." and ends "25.) Conclusion: Always remember that you are not a photographic film." Otherwise the list makes a mix of rather funny and absurd "5.) Tackiness: To remove tacky surface feeling, simply wash surface with water," paired with down-to-earth "18.) The old belief that you must draw well before you should be allowed to paint is unfounded," suggestive, uplifting, and sometimes preachy comments. "Tell stories like Jesus." Also to be mentioned are two book projects: Ingres and Other Parables (1972) and Brown and Green and Other Parables (2001); both consist of ten moral tales for young artists just out of school and ready to enter the art community. Particularly the first book features Baldessari's believe prominently in that ideas are most important to the realization of artworks, they establish all relevant conditions for their becoming.
John Baldessari's website (later in 2019 Baldessari dyed and the website disappeared)
Baldessari talks about his writing practice for More Than You Wanted to Know About John Baldessari, 2014 (4:43 Min.)
A Brief History of John Baldessari, LACMA promotion clip narrated by Tom Waits, 2012 (5:54 Min.)
