John Baldessari. 1+1=1

The Russian-English catalogue presents the results of John Baldessari’s project, which took two years and whose purpose was to slow down the interaction between art and the spectator. Instead of something easily recognisable, like a brand (“That’s Warhol”, “This is a Picasso”), Baldessari wanted to create disorienting works to sow the seeds of doubt in the spectator’s mind.

All works reproduced in the catalogue were made by blending images created by different artists, or presenting a work by one artist under another artist’s name, in order to draw the spectator’s attention to the art’s ability to create meaning.

With many exhibitions to his name, 1+1=1 opened a new page in the history of publications about Baldessari. The experimental nature of the series turns the publication into an artwork in its own right, as original in its entirety as every separate part of it is on its own.

The book also contains John Baldessari’s interview with Kate Fowle and Hans Ulrich Obrist.