spot on

John Baldessari
National City (w,1,2,3,4,5,6,B) Details - 2 and 3 (1996-2009)
Courtesy 2009 John Baldessari Studio © John Baldessari
Colour photographs with acrylic paint
46x46cm
it must be said, i'm no huge fan of baldessari
i'm fairly unmoved by his work (although i enjoyed a recent article in tate etc)
last week, something reminded me of his work. either i saw a picture (a donkey?) with something obscuring its face, or for some reason i imagined putting a coloured dot or balloon over a picture (probably a donkey) in a gesture to baldessari. who knows?

this is not the picture. it is merely an approximation of the picture (possibly a donkey)

a little quote from a frieze article about baldessari's No Face/Faces phase
There was a period when he blocked out the faces on the photographs he used as source material so that attention could be paid to other areas of the picture. This sounds similar to his procedure in life drawing class of draping fabric over the models’ heads so students would focus on other parts of the body. After a decade of blocking, faces were allowed back, but not entirely.

a huge balloon made up of baldessari like blobs of colour,
blocking out itself
how self-reflexive of the brain
bits missing, bits replaced
John Baldessari
Repair/Retouch Series: An Allegory About Wholeness (Plate and Man with Crutches) 1976
Courtesy 2009 John Baldessari Studio © John Baldessari
Four black-and-white photographs, mounted on board
38.1x61cm