THROUGH THE RITUAL OF CREMATION HE DRAWS A CONNECTION BETWEEN ARTISTIC PRACTICE AND THE HUMAN LIFE CYCLE. CREMATION PROJECT (JOHN BALDESSARI). CREMATION PROJECT (JOHN BALDESSARI) JOHN BALDESSARI IS TODAY KNOWN AS ONE OF THE LEADING CONCEPTUAL ARTISTS OF HIS GENERATION, USING FOUND OR APPROPRIATED IMAGES AND EXPLORING THE ASSOCIATIVE POWER OF LANGUAGE. LIKE MANY EXPERIMENTAL ARTISTS BALDESSARI BEGAN HIS CAREER IN THE MORE TRADITIONAL REALM OF PAINTING. RATHER THAN MERELY MOVING ON FROM THESE EARLY WORKS, BALDESSARI DECIDED IN 1970 TO HAVE THEM DESTROYED. BALDESSARI CONCEIVED OF THE DESTRUCTION OF HIS EARLY WORKS AS AN ARTWORK IN ITSELF CALLED CREMATION PROJECT AND IN A LETTER TO A CRITIC SHORTLY AFTERWARDS HE WROTE, ‘I REALLY THINK IT IS MY BEST PIECE TO DATE’. HE BROUGHT TOGETHER ALL THE PAINTINGS STILL IN HIS POSSESSION THAT DATED FROM MAY 1953—THE MONTH HE GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE—TO MARCH 1966. HE MADE SOME SLIDES OF THE WORKS, NUMBERING AROUND 100, BEFORE THEY WERE BROKEN INTO PIECES AND HAULED TO A SAN DIEGO MORTUARY, WHERE THEY WERE CREMATED. THE RITUALISTIC ACT WAS LATER TITLED THE “CREMATION PROJECT.” “IN PART A STATEMENT OF FRUSTRATION, IN PART A GESTURE OF RENUNCIATION, THIS MARKED A MAJOR SHIFT IN BALDESSARI’S ART,” ART HISTORIAN LYNNE COOKE WRITES IN THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE. COOKE SEES BALDESSARI’S ACT AS “A LIBERATION” FROM PAINTING—NOT SIMPLY AS A MEDIUM BUT AS AN “ARENA”—“TO A REALM OF ACTIVITY THAT SEEMINGLY HAD NO BOUNDARIES.” THE ASHES OF THE PAINTINGS WERE COLLECTED INTO NUMBERED AND SIGNED BOXES, WITH SOME REMAINS PRESENTED THAT FALL IN SOFTWARE: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: ITS NEW MEANING FOR ART AT NEW YORK’S JEWISH MUSEUM. A MEMORIAL PLAQUE WITH THE DATES OF THE CHARRED ART COMMEMORATED THIS SPAN OF HIS PRACTICE LIKE AN EPITAPH. THE EXHIBITION CATALOGUE FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHS OF BALDESSARI TEARING UP CANVASES WITH HIS HANDS ALONGSIDE THE WORDS “A LIFE’S WORK GOES UP IN FLAMES.” ART HISTORIAN LUCY BRADNOCK ALSO ANALYZES THE IMPACT OF THE “CREMATION PROJECT,” IN TERMS OF BOTH BALDESSARI’S PERSONAL ARTISTIC EVOLUTION AND THE ART-HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF HIS WORK. “ON ONE LEVEL, ‘CREMATION PROJECT’ MARKED A STAND AGAINST THE KIND OF FIGURATIVE AND POP-INFLECTED PAINTING THAT HAD DOMINATED ART TEACHING ON THE WEST COAST FROM THE 1940S TO THE 1960S,” SHE WRITES IN THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, ADDING THAT “IT ALSO MARKED BALDESSARI’S TRANSITION TO ARTISTIC MATURITY.” “BUT IN ITS THEATRICALITY, ITS HUMOUR (BALDESSARI BAKED COOKIES OUT OF THE ASHES) AND ITS REIFICATION OF THE PAINTINGS’ REMAINS, THE WORK ALSO POINTS TO THE KINDS OF CRITICAL PARADOXES THAT WERE TO CHARACTERISE THE LOS ANGELES CONCEPTUALISM OF WHICH BALDESSARI HAS LONG BEEN REGARDED AS A LEADING PROPONENT.” IT WAS ALSO HARDLY THE ONLY TIME OF CHANGE FOR BALDESSARI. SOON AFTER THE “CREMATION PROJECT,” HE CREATED THE 1971 LITHOGRAPH “I WILL NOT MAKE ANY MORE BORING ART” THAT REPEATS THE PHRASE OVER AND OVER, LIKE A SCHOOL PUNISHMENT. HIS WORK CONSTANTLY EVOLVED IN SHAPE AND FORM, WHETHER HE WAS PAINTING DISEMBODIED NOSES FLOATING IN CLOUDS OR COVERING A CEILING WITH THE DIZZYING LINES OF THE LOS ANGELES FREEWAYS. WITH WIT AND A BIT OF SUBVERSION, HE PLAYED AGAINST PRECONCEPTIONS OF WHAT ART SHOULD BE WHILE RECOGNIZING THAT IT STILL NEEDED SOME HEART. “ART CAN BE DEFINED AS A BELIEVABLE LIE—THAT’S AN IDEA THAT HAS ALWAYS APPEALED TO ME,” BALDESSARI SAID IN A 2005 INTERVIEW WITH ART HISTORIAN SIDRA STICH FOR AMERICAN ART. “YOU’RE TRYING TO CONVINCE SOMEBODY OF SOMETHING. EVEN IF IT’S THE BEST PAINTING IN THE WORLD, IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE IT, THEN IT’S JUST PAINT AND CANVAS AND PICTURE [STRETCHER] BARS.” IN 1970 BALDESSARI BURNT ALL OF THE PAINTINGS HE HAD CREATED BETWEEN 1953 AND 1966 AS PART OF A NEW PIECE, TITLED THE CREMATION PROJECT. THE ASHES FROM THESE PAINTINGS WERE BAKED INTO COOKIES AND PLACED INTO AN URN, AND THE RESULTING ART INSTALLATION CONSISTS OF A BRONZE PLAQUE WITH THE DESTROYED PAINTINGS’ BIRTH AND DEATH DATES, AS WELL AS THE RECIPE FOR MAKING THE COOKIES. THROUGH THE RITUAL OF CREMATION BALDESSARI DRAWS A CONNECTION BETWEEN ARTISTIC PRACTICE AND THE HUMAN LIFE CYCLE. THUS THE ACT OF DISAVOWAL BECOMES GENERATIVE AS WITH THE WORK OF AUTO-DESTRUCTIVE ARTIST JEAN TINGUELY.