John Baldessari laureate for Bonnefantenmuseum art award
In December, the American John Baldessari was selected as the B.A.C.A. Laureate 2008. According to the jury, which was made up of Bice Curiger, Robert Storr and Alexander van Grevenstein, Baldessari forms an important bridge between the visual culture of Pop Art and Nouveau Realisme and the crop of artists/photographers who belong to a younger generation.
The B.A.C.A. International 2008 is intended for an artist’s artist; i.e. an artist who has fully made his/her name in the world of visual art but is not necessarily familiar to the general public. He or she is also regarded as a focus and driving force of new developments, and this has prompted the addition of a Masterclass, which will take place in Maastricht at the beginning of October 2008, following the award ceremony.
B.A.C.A. Laureate 2008: John Baldessari
John Baldessari was born in 1931 in National City (California) and lives in Santa Monica (California). He has taught in several places in and around Los Angeles, and is currently associated with the University
of California.
The jury believes that in John Baldessari they have found an artist who forms a bridge between the visual culture of Pop Art and Nouveau Realisme and the crop of artists/photographers who belong to a younger generation. Baldessari is one of the major protagonists of Minimal Art and Concept Art. He is the artist who, in the world of photography, confronted seriality and mathematical sequences with subjective moments of choice and ambiguous layers of meaning. His ars combinatorial with photographic means has resulted in an oeuvre that has developed along free, self-generating and poetic lines. The enormous boost that photography has received in art is therefore partly due to Baldessari.
Masterclass
Baldessari has been influencing younger generations of artists for many years, partly through his teaching. The museum is therefore very proud that Baldessari will be giving the B.A.C.A. Masterclass, shortly after the award ceremony. As part of this, the work of four to six young artists from various post-graduate and second phase courses in the Netherlands will be included in the exhibition. The names of these artists will be announced before the summer of 2008.
About the jury
The American Robert Storr is a freelance exhibition maker, critic, artist and writer of monographic studies. From 1990 to 2002, Storr was a curator at MoMA, New York. In 2007, he led the Venice Biennial and he has been Dean of the renowned Yale School of Art since 2006.
Bice Curiger, from Switzerland, is mainly known as the editor-in-chief of the art journal Parkett and the publisher of the museum journal TATE ETC. Curiger combines these activities with those of her job of curator at Kunsthaus Zürich.
The initiator of the B.A.C.A. is Alexander van Grevenstein, director of the Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht.
Support
For the organisation of the B.A.C.A. International, the Bonnefantenmuseum has been able to count on the generous support of two leading multinationals that have roots in Limburg. A sponsor agreement has been concluded with Océ NV and DSM NV for the organisation of several editions of this ambitious award. The B.A.C.A. International also receives support from the Maastricht Council and the Province of Limburg, who are thus both underlining the international significance of this art award for the city and the whole province.
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