LACMA Collaborates With John Baldessari

With clouds on the floor and freeways on the ceiling, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's (LACMA) exhibition, Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images, features a unique installation designed by conceptual artist John Baldessari.

Sharing his creative insights of Belgian surrealist artist Ren Magritte's art, Baldessari creates an inventive presentation that is playful and humorous, yet provides a deep visual understanding of Magritte's paintings and drawings along with works by the thirty-one contemporary artists in the exhibition. Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images is on view at LACMA from November 19, 2006, through March 4, 2007, and will not travel to other venues.

"Artists help us open our eyes to new ways of seeing. Magritte certainly did that, and now contemporary artists continue to enliven our vision," said Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director of LACMA. "One of my objectives for LACMA is to engage artists in helping us present a unique perspective in as many ways, and for as many genres of art, as possible. In this case, by collaborating with John Baldessari on our Magritte installation, we have the rare opportunity to glimpse one artist through the eyes of another."

Co-curated by Stephanie Barron, LACMA Senior Curator of Modern Art, and Michel Draguet, Director of the Muses Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, with cooperation from the Magritte Foundation, Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images is the first major exhibition to fully explore the impact of Magritte's work on U.S. and European artists working since the 1950s. Featuring sixty-eight paintings and drawings by Magritte and an equal number works in diverse media by thirty-one contemporary artists, including Baldessari, Vija Celmins, Robert Gober, Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha, and Andy Warhol, the exhibition investigates the connections-sometimes direct and sometimes idiosyncratic-that exist between certain motifs and ideas in Magritte's paintings.

Creating a theatrical presentation reminiscent of the surrealist's own unusual displays, Baldessari generates a disjointed environment intended to challenge the viewer's perception and alter the way the artwork is seen. Concentrating on visual themes, and combining works by Magritte and the contemporary artists, the installation ironically speaks to the minimalist ideas of "what you see is what you see."

Drawing inspiration from Magritte's paintings, Baldessari recontextualizes the Belgian master's work by dispersing his commonly used motifs throughout the installation. The following are examples of some special elements in the exhibition.

- A carpet of clouds is laid across the floors of the gallery.

- The ceiling features wallpaper of intersecting freeways to simulate a disorderly space for the visitor.

- The gallery entrance presents a scaled rendition of Magritte's surrealistic door in The Unexpected
Answer (La réponse improve) (1933).

- A window with the image of the New York skyline is in the gallery to create a confounding disjunction of reality for the visitor and also reference Magritte's use of windows in his paintings.

A column in the exhibition is sheathed in a form reminiscent of an object common in Magritte paintings, such as The Annunciation (L'annonciation) (1930), representing a giant wooden bilboquet, an element in a French game.

The museum's security officers keep the spirit of Magritte by wearing black bowler hats similar to those depicted in his self-portraits.

"I think Magritte was interested in invigorating cliches and stereotypes, and that interests me too," said John Baldessari. "Simply by changing the ambiance of a person or an object, or manipulating the scale, makes you think about relationships. We have the desire to make those connections whether they're there or not," he continued. "I tried to think as Magritte might. I think this is something he would have done, or agreed with. So, it's not my art, it's his, and I'm trying to make it relevant, lively, and not like a musty artist from the last century, but a relevant artist. I thought this would implement that."

LACMA curator Stephanie Barron notes: "It has been a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with John on this installation. He has brought a fresh perspective to the project, and the installation presents both obvious and subtle conjunctions of works in a unique environment-the result will, I expect, cause viewers to spend more time looking carefully at what is presented in the exhibition. The various elements he has designed create a space that is both sly and provocative. I imagine Magritte would have enjoyed it very much."

About John Baldessari: John Baldessari was born in National City, CA in 1931, and lives and works in Santa Monica, CA. He is currently a professor of art at the University of California, Los Angeles, and taught at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA until 1990. Since the mid-1960s, his acclaimed photography and other media has been featured in more than 120 solo exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe, and in over 300 group exhibitions. He recently had exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, and Europe, and has also been involved in creating artist books, videos, films, billboards, public works, and directing curatorial projects. Baldessari has received numerous national and international awards, including the Americans for the Arts lifetime achievement award, the Rolex Mentor arts initiative, the Governors Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts in California, the Oscar Kokoschka Prize from Austria, and the Spectrum-International Award for Photography of the Foundation of Lower Saxony, Germany. For more information about John Baldessari, visit www.baldessari.org.

Tickets: Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images is specially ticketed. Tickets go on sale Monday, October 16, 2006 and can be purchased online at lacma.org, via phone at 877 522-6225, or on-site at LACMA's Box Office. Weekdays: adults $17.00; seniors (62+) and students with valid I.D. $14.00; and twilight (starting at 5 pm) $12.00. Weekends: adults $20.00; seniors (62+) and students with valid I.D. $17.00; and twilight (starting at 5 pm) $15.00. Children 17 and under are always free.

In addition, the exhibition will accompany an audio tour narrated by award-winning actor Pierce Brosnan and feature narratives by John Baldessari, Jeff Koons, and several other contemporary artists. Tickets for the audio tour are weekdays: public $6, public twilight $5, members $5, member's twilight $4, and weekends: public $7, public twilight $6, members $5, member's twilight $4.

By www.lacma.org