As Philomene Magers remarks, “Monika and I had the unique pleasure of working with John since the late 1980s, and his work has remained a cornerstone of Sprüth Magers’ presentations of cutting-edge international artists for over thirty years, cementing his crucial importance both to our work and to global audiences. As we established our Berlin, London and Los Angeles galleries, we regularly presented his ever-evolving and inventive projects.” Over the past several decades Baldessari has had numerous exhibitions at the gallery including group shows in 1988, 1991 and 1993 and solo exhibitions in 1995, 1997 and 1999. Over a dozen solo and group exhibitions across the gallery’s international locations have followed.

The Estate will also continue to work with John Baldessari’s long-term galleries Mai 36 in Zurich and Galerie Greta Meert in Brussels.

Born in 1931 in National City, California, Baldessari received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from San Diego State College, with additional coursework in art history at the University of California, Berkeley, and in studio art at Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles. After producing largely abstract, gestural canvases in the 1950s and early 1960s—the dominant approach in the US in the wake of Abstract Expressionism—Baldessari made a series of radical departures in an effort to produce “a kind of non-aesthetic art” that privileged ideas over self-expression. His paintings from 1966 onward incorporated photographs printed onto the canvas’ surface; or they featured only wry texts referencing contemporary art theory and practice; while others employed the hands of commissioned painters rather than the artist’s own. These conceptual gestures proved both groundbreaking and extraordinarily influential.