I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art: Prints from John Baldessari at the Laguna Art Museum

Featuring over 70 prints, the exhibition surveys John Baldessari’s dynamic use of the medium across the span of his career | Image: John Baldessari, ‘I will not make any more boring art, Lithograph, 1971. Courtesy of the Laguna Art Museum

On view until Sept. 22, the Laguna Art Museum presents I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art, an exhibition of prints from John Baldessari (Chouinard 59). The pieces come from the collection of The Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, and include impressions of almost every print Baldessari has made to date.

In conjunction with the exhibit, the museum will present a lecture on July 25 titled Sally Yard on John Baldessari. Yard is a Professor of Art History at the University of San Diego whose research interests stretch from the emergence of abstract expressionism in the US to the relationship between art and the public. For those interested in learning more about the techniques behind Baldessari’s works, there will also be a talk and demonstration on June 27 from master printmaker and professor Dirk Hagner.

One of the most influential figures in contemporary California art, Baldessari is most known for his practice of altering photographic images to produce thought-provoking and often comical pieces. Although beginning as a painter, he moved towards a more conceptual model of artmaking in the early 1970s. It was during this time that his now-famous lithograph I will not make any more boring art, which is housed at MoMA in New York, was created.

Baldessari was a founding faculty member of CalArts, where he taught from taught from 1970 to 1986. He influenced a generation of artists including David Salle (Art BFA 73), James Welling (Art BFA 72, MFA 74) and Matt Mullican (Art BFA 74). In 2015, CalArts celebrated the addition of the The Baldessari Studios building, a 7,500 square foot structure that includes 16 artist studios, an exhibition space and a large light-filled painting room, named after the legendary artist himself.

General admission tickets to the Laguna Art Museum are $7 and entrance to the lectures is included with the purchase.