Sprüth Magers inaugurates its Los Angeles space with new work by John Baldessari

‘A film should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order,’ Jean-Luc Godard once famously said. Godard – the aloof auteur of French 1960s Nouvelle Vague cinema – is a prime influence on John Baldessari’s work, with its cryptic narratives inket-printed and painted onto canvases. The sparse and seductive pull of his new pieces similarly deconstruct a viewer’s wish for linear narratives, with their confusing juxtapositions between text and image arranged just as Godard’s improvised and roughly edited sequences circle the viewer’s desire for a story and often create clashes between sound and image.
For an inaugural American exhibition at their new gallery on Los Angeles’ so-called ‘Miracle Mile’, Monika Sprüth’s and Philomene Magers’ choice seems, in some ways, a failsafe one. Baldessari – West Coast modernist, ambivalent concept artist and a teacher at various California schools from 1959 to 2008 – is a cherished figure of the LA scene, and an artist’s artist.
This isn’t a show about homage though, or reverence. It feels like the right time for a solo Baldessari presentation in Los Angeles, especially since his last was in 2012. The works recall campaigns from the halcyon days of advertising, their postures of leisure both dreamy and wistful; the gestures of the body as well as of words, as ever, are crucial components of Baldessari’s deconstruction of language – gazing off into the distance, reclining, sitting. The texts, positioned to be read with the image, do not quite fit, but they’re not disconnected either. Who is Ben, and where is his jacket? You can’t help but search beyond what you see.
Baldessari rather conducts a mellifluous orchestra of signs, creating directions and cues rather than the whole routed map. His interest in sequences, and in the arbitrary structures that underpin communication, is evident in his new work, even if his attitudes towards those structures are just as ambiguous as ever. The works hang like puzzles – games on the gallery wall for the viewer to figure out. But art making, unlike sign making, does not make things more obvious. Sometimes meaning is simply found in the search for it.
Pictured: Phil Works in the Kitchen..., 2015 (left) and Doris Comes in and Draws Bill Aside..., 2015 (right)
The works recall campaigns from the halcyon days of advertising – their postures of leisure are dreamy and wistful, all while depicting Baldessari’s deconstruction of language.
Pictured: Ben’s Jacket Drapes..., 2015 (left) and It’s Possible, Although..., 2015 (right)
The sparse and seductive pull of his new pieces deconstruct a viewer’s wish for linear narratives.
Baldessari’s interest in sequences, and in the arbitrary structures that underpin communication, is evident as much as ever
INFORMATION
’John Baldessari’ is on view until 9 April. For more information, visit Sprüth Magers’ website
Photography: Joshua White
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Courtesy of the artist, Marian Goodman gallery and Sprüth Magers
ADDRESS
Sprüth Magers
5900 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Charlotte Jansen is a journalist and the author of two books on photography, Girl on Girl (2017) and Photography Now (2021). She is commissioning editor at Elephant magazine and has written on contemporary art and culture for The Guardian, the Financial Times, ELLE, the British Journal of Photography, Frieze and Artsy. Jansen is also presenter of Dior Talks podcast series, The Female Gaze.
-
The bespoke Jaguar E-Type GTO melds elements from every era of the classic sports car
ECD Automotive Design’s one-off commission caters to a client who wanted to combine the greatest hits of Jaguar’s E-Type along with modern conveniences and more power
-
Casa Sanlorenzo debuts in Venice as a new hub for contemporary art
The luxury yachting leader unveils a stunning new space in a palazzo restored by Piero Lissoni – where art, innovation, and sustainability come together
-
Once vacant, London's grand department stores are getting a new lease on life
Thanks to imaginative redevelopment, these historic landmarks are being rebonr as residences, offices, gyms and restaurants. Here's what's behind the trend
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, Divers
Geordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took place
Marc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture
-
A major Takashi Murakami exhibition sees the world in kaleidoscopic colour
The Cleveland Art Museum presents 'Takashi Murakami 'Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow', exploring outrage and escapist fantasy
-
Ai Weiwei’s new public installation is coming soon to Four Freedoms State Park
‘Camouflage’ by Ai Weiwei will launch the inaugural Art X Freedom project in September 2025, a new programme to investigate social justice and freedom
-
Leonard Baby's paintings reflect on his fundamentalist upbringing, a decade after he left the church
The American artist considers depression and the suppressed queerness of his childhood in a series of intensely personal paintings, on show at Half Gallery, New York
-
Desert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows in the Coachella Valley
Will Jennings reports from the epic California art festival. Here are the highlights
-
In ‘The Last Showgirl’, nostalgia is a drug like any other
Gia Coppola takes us to Las Vegas after the party has ended in new film starring Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
-
‘American Photography’: centuries-spanning show reveals timely truths
At the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Europe’s first major survey of American photography reveals the contradictions and complexities that have long defined this world superpower