John Baldessari 1+1=1

The Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture presented the first exhibition of conceptual artist John Baldessari. Spanning over half a century, Baldessari expressed his ideas through an interplay of media such as painting, photography, video and cinema, books, lithography, objects and installations. The exhibition 1+1=1 presented a series of paintings created in the past two years, in which the artist continues to explore the tense relationships between image and text in art.

The paintings offer a double interpretation of canonic artworks, divided into four interrelated series: Doublе Vision, Double Feature, Double Bill and Double Play. In each series Baldessari reinterpreted famous artworks by Mane, Malevich, Gauguin, Duchamp, Warhol and other iconic artists.

Architecture: Olga Treivas, Vera Odyn, Asya Baranova
Client: Contemporary Culture Center Garage
Curator: Kate Fowle, Hans
Status: Completed
Location: Contemporary Culture Center Garage
Area: 800 m2
Year: 2013
Photography: Ilya Ivanov

  • In each series Baldessari remakes the canonical works of Manet, Malevich, Gauguin, Duchamp, Warhol and other cult figures

  • Baldessari states: «I like to create new meaning. The way to do that is to bring two things together… It could end up as ‘Dr. Frankenstein’ disastrous or a third meaning is created»