John Baldessari
Counter Editions
44a Charlotte Road
London
EC2A 3PD
(+44) 020 7684 8888
mail [at] countereditions.com
www.countereditions.com/brain-cloud
Widely recognised as one of the founders of the Conceptual art movement of the 1960s, John Baldessari has remained one of the most influential artists of the last forty years. A visual analysis of images from everyday life has been at the heart of his practice, and he has often focused his attention on the absurdity of mundane things.
Baldessari has exclusively created a new print for Counter Editions – ‘Brain/Cloud (With Seascape and Palm Tree)’ (2009). The print is a combination of the imagery from the installation ‘Brain/Cloud’ – part of his retrospective exhibition at Tate Modern. Palm trees and clouds are recurring motifs in Baldessari’s work, and having lived and worked in California for most of his life the palm tree acts as an iconic locational marker in spite of being a non-native species. The absurdity of the tree’s shape and size also draws him to its image. Baldessari has twinned the palm tree with the image of a brain/cloud, a play on the way we look at clouds to seek out familiar shapes. The ‘Brain/Cloud’ acts as a physical embodiment of the act of creative thinking. ‘Brain/Cloud (With Seascape and Palm Tree)’ could be seen as an image from the memory of a quintessentially Californian conceptual artist.
Founded in 2000 Counter Editions commissions and produces prints and multiples by leading contemporary artists including Rebecca Warren, Peter Doig, Roni Horn, Tracey Emin, Chris Ofili and Rachel Whiteread.
*Inkjet on Hahnemühle photo rag 308gsm paper using archival inks
Produced by K2 Screen, London
74 x 58 cm
Accompanied by a numbered and dated certificate signed by the artist
Courtesy of Counter Editions and the artist.