Quotes from John Baldessari

I could never figure out why photography and art had separate histories. So I decided to explore both.

I go back and forth between wanting to be abundantly simple and maddeningly complex.

A lot of ideas don't translate very well into art. To say, "Oh my god, the grass is green ..." You're going to end up with a big green painting.

I guess I get bored easily, and thank God. I don't want to all my life pound only the same key, although some artists do it very effectively. I'm not trying to denigrate anybody.

I go back and forth between wanting to be abundantly simple and maddeningly complex.

When I went to art school, I was just having fun. I realised that was the last chance I had, and then I would have to get a job.

That word 'funny' always makes me feel uncomfortable. Because if I were trying to be funny, I would be something like Bill Wegman - he really tries to be funny. I don't try to be funny. It's just that I feel the world is a little bit absurd and off-kilter, and I'm sort of reporting.

I think I live such a boring life. But I can't imagine any other kind of life, so I guess it's the life I want.

It's human desire to be understood. And we always feel we're not understood.

Ideally I would like the work to be a hybrid between painting and photography.

Find the most puzzling kind of art you can think of, and then go out and try to approximate it with your camera. Take a photograph that corresponds to it. (Assignment to students.)

I think the term 'conceptual art' is a useful term for writers, a basket to put people in, like Pop Art or Impressionism or whatever.

A TWO-DIMENSIONAL SURFACE WITHOUT ANY ARTICULATION IS A DEAD EXPERIENCE

I don't try to be funny. It's just that I feel the world is a little bit absurd and off-kilter and I'm sort of reporting.

That should be the goal for all art, to be as simple as a flashcard.