Dots to John Baldessari are like strings to a puppeteer.

Baldessari explains, “Once I had these figures with their faces obliterated, I could begin to use them like players or actors in a stage play or a movie,” which is pretty chill if you don’t think about the poor people who are having their faces “obliterated.”

He pulled these black and white images from movie stills (and sometimes local newspapers) because a) they were really cheap and b) movies and TV are “probably a more real world to most people than the real world.” Sad, but true. And with this thought, John embarked on his dotting. This particular dotting made in 1988 was the face of ART/LA 88, the third contemporary art fair in LA, which was super shibby (shibby (1990s slang) adj (etc.). Used to indicate that something is “cool.”).

You’ll notice that there aren’t many parts that make up a John Baldessari work. And for this he has been categorized as a Conceptual or Minimalist artist, despite his insistence that the label is “a little bit boring.” But boring his work is not! If anything, it’s funny. Who else would think to put price stickers on the faces of film stills that no one recognizes or super boring local newspaper portraits (knowing the photographer is coaching the interaction saying “now shake hands and smile”) removing their autonomy, making himself probably the only cool puppeteer to ever live. The answer is no one. No one else would do that. Except our beloved John Baldessari.