John Baldessari was an American conceptual artist who revolutionized the use of found photography and appropriated images. He began his career as a painter, but soon became interested in exploring how images and texts communicate and challenge the assumptions of contemporary art, ultimately expanding the media in which he worked to include collage, film, video, sculpture, and photography. Often witty and provocative, his works juxtapose images and texts from different sources and contexts, encouraging viewers to draw associations between disparate materials. For example, A Movie: Directional Piece Where People are Looking, 1972, in Glenstone’s collection, presents a series of photographs of a movie as it appears on a television screen, painted with colorful arrows and mounted on a board. Rather than draw attention to the narrative of the movie, in this work Baldessari highlights the arrangement of actors and the directions they look on and off screen.

–Daniel Mauro, from the Glenstone Field Guide