You Missed Having Drinks with John Baldessari
There’s something refreshing about artist interviews. For their brief duration, the artist is not described through a museum wall text or an exhibition catalogue essay, but by themselves, in their own words. Without the filter of third party interpretation, what remains is simply raw human insight into an artist’s intentions, processes and insecurities. With this frank and casual approach to visual inquiry in mind, White Flag created its Drinks series, wherein archival video interviews with highly accomplished artists are screened once a month at happy hour (with free happy hour drinks).
This season’s series was inaugurated by a 1979 interview with California-based artist John Baldessari. Best known as a major contributor to the conceptual art movement of the 1960’s and 70’s, Baldessari stripped away the physicality of art objects and reduced art to theory and concept. As his works were founded on ideas rather than materials, text was often used either with or without an image to critique the definition of art to the point of absurdity. The shift in perception initiated by Baldessari and his contemporaries resonates strongly within the current art discourse.
The next interview in the Drinks Series will be on November 18th with Barbara Kruger. Drinks served 5 to 7pm, video screens at 6.
-Marie Heilich, Intern
