The MoCP presents a retrospective of Baldessari's prints, spanning the four decades of artist's 'post-painting' period, 1970s to the present. This collection of prints is on loan from the Portland, Oregon-based collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer. Paula McCartney's densely wooded landscapes are enlivened, ironically, by brightly colored craft store songbirds. McCartney began the Bird Watching series in 2003, and released a book with the same title in 2010.
John Baldessari
A Print Retrospective from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
Chicago –– The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) is pleased to announce two
exhibitions opening in July 2010.
The MoCP is proud to present a retrospective of renowned artist John Baldessariʼs prints,
spanning the four decades of Baldessariʼs “post-painting” period, 1970s to the present. This
collection of prints is on loan from the Portland, Oregon-based collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer.
"I first became interested in John Baldessariʼs work in the early 1990s and have been steadily
acquiring it ever since," says Schnitzer. "Every time I see his work, I find myself excited,
frustrated, often puzzled, but always appreciative of how the work challenges us to confront our
preconceived ideas about language, image, and ultimately the world around us."
In 1970, Baldessari moved away from painting and began to work exclusively with photography
and text to make his art more accessible. He was later identified with the Conceptual Art
movement for his use of appropriated photographic images and text, to which he added colorful
cutout shapes to create unique collage-based arrangements. He continued to employ
photography in the 1980s, particularly movie stills, which he shaped, altered, framed, and
rearranged without text in order to trigger new meanings.
Baldessari's interest in stretching art world parameters to include photographs coincided in the
1970s with a similar interest on the part of many progressive American print workshops to
introduce printmaking processes as vehicles for contemporary expression. Techniques such as
photo-etching, photo-offset lithography, and photogravure were already beginning to be used in
the production of contemporary prints but were not being used to produce prints that featured
photographic images as Baldessari had desired.
Baldessari once quipped that every artist should have a “cheap line,” in reference to the
affordability of prints relative to other art forms available in the marketplace, but his comment
belies the serious commitment that he has made to printmaking over four decades. The hundreds
of prints he has made in a variety of media with presses and publishers in California, New York,
and Europe underscore the high value that Baldessari places on printmaking as an artistic form.
On view at MoCP is a selection of prints collected by Schnitzer from several of these print
publishers.
"By challenging us through his art, John Baldessari prompts the viewer to take a new approach to
seeing and understanding our world," Schnitzer says. "This remarkable achievement is what
makes John Baldessari one of the most important artists of our time."
John Baldessari, (b. 1931, National City, California) has been teaching art and making art since
the 1950s after receiving his BA and MA from San Diego State College (now San Diego State
University). He taught at California Institute of the Arts from its founding in 1970 to 1988, and has
taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, since 1996. He lives in Los Angeles and is
often credited with helping to make that city an internationally recognized center of contemporary
art. In 1997 Baldessari received the California Governorʼs Award for Lifetime Achievement in the
Visual Arts, followed in 2005 by the Lifetime Achievement Award from Americans for the Arts. As
part of the 53rd International Venice Biennale 2009, Baldessari was awarded the Golden Lion for
Lifetime Achievement.
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Paula McCartney: Bird Watching
curated by Karen Irvine
Paula McCartneyʼs densely wooded landscapes are enlivened, ironically, by brightly colored
craft store songbirds. While the deceit is more obvious in some pictures than others, what bears
noticing is how these faux fowl punctuate their environments both as formal elements carefully
arranged amid the brush and branches, and as a curious construction that offers an idealized
vision of nature undercut by the gentle satire of that ideal. McCartney began the Bird Watching
series in 2003, and released a book with the same title co-published by Princeton Architectural
Press and the MoCP in 2010.
Paula McCartney (b.1971; resides St. Paul, MN) holds a Certificate in Photography from the
International Center of Photography, New York (1996), a BFA from Empire State College, New
York (1998), and an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute (2002). She is the recipient of a 2007
McKnight Artist Fellowship for Photographers, a 2005 Womenʼs Studio Workshop Artistʼs Book
Production Grant and a 2004 Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographerʼs Fellowship
Grant. Recent solo exhibitions include Ornithological Interpretations at Rochester Art Center,
Rochester, MN, Bird Watching at Womenʼs Studio Workshop, Rosendale, New York, and
Constructed Landscapes at 364 Hayes Street Contemporary Art, San Francisco. Her work is also
held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Arts
Commission; and Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.
ABOUT MOCP
The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP), a resident organization of Columbia College
Chicago, is the only museum in the Midwest with an exclusive commitment to the medium of
photography. By presenting projects and exhibitions that embrace a wide range of contemporary
aesthetics and technologies, the MoCP strives to communicate the value and significance of
photographic images as expressions of human thought, imagination, and creativity.
ABOUT THE CURATORS
John Baldessari: A Print Retrospective from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His
Family Foundation is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Jordan
Schnitzer Family Foundation. Schnitzer is a Portland, Oregon, native whose mother operated
a local art gallery that focused on contemporary Northwest artists. He was fourteen years old
when he bought his first painting, though today his principal passion is for contemporary art and
prints. That initial acquisition started a lifelong pursuit to build a collection that could be shared
with the public. During the last twenty years, Schnitzer has mounted over thirty exhibitions that
have traveled to more than seventy-five museums. In addition to helping organize these
exhibitions of work from his collection (loaned for free), he also helps fund educational programs
that are tailored to individual community needs. Often these programs include underwriting that
provides for guest artist visitations, hands-on workshops for children and families, transportation
for grade school and high school students, and curriculum materials for teachers.
Karen Irvine (Paula McCartney) is the curator of the Museum of Contemporary Photography,
Columbia College Chicago. She has organized numerous exhibitions including: Audible Imagery:
Sound and Photography; Anthony Goicolea; Tracey Baran; Scott Fortino; Shirana Shahbazi:
Goftare Nik/Good Words; Jason Salavon; Jin Lee; Paul Shambroom: Evidence of Democracy;
Alec Soth: Sleeping by the Mississippi; The Furtive Gaze; and Camera/Action: Performance and
Photography, among others. She received her MFA in photography from FAMU, Prague and her
MA in art history from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Press Contacts
Audrey Michelle Mast
audrey.m.mast@gmail.com
Image: Paula McCartney, American Goldfinches, 2008, Courtesy of Klompching Gallery, New York
Opening July 2, 2010
The Museum of Contemporary Photography - MoCP
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