Born in National City, California, John Baldessari earned BA and MA degrees from San Diego State College. In 1960, he had his first one-man exhibition at the La Jolla Gallery in California. He made his home in Santa Monica. Between 1967 and 1968, he employed a sign painter and created text and photo text paintings, all on canvases that would fit through the doors of his Volkswagen. During that same time period, he was teaching art at the University
of California at San Diego and met New York artists, who were
brought to the campus by the head of the art department, Paul
Brach. One of the New Yorkers arranged an exhibition in that
city for Baldessari, which gave him valuable exposure to a new
audience. |
