- Title
- Wrong
- Date Made
- 1966-1968
- Medium
- Photoemulsion with acrylic on canvas
- Dimensions
- 59 x 45 in. (149.86 x 114.3 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.71.40
- Collecting Area
- Contemporary Art
- Curatorial Notes
A pioneer of Conceptual art, John Baldessari’s exploration of language questions the very nature of communication, a subject that grows more complex with each technological advance. In Wrong—an early and pivotal example of conceptualism—Baldessari is photographed with a palm tree seemingly growing out of his head, exemplifying a well-known error in photographic composition. The title is meant to refer to multiple types of “wrongness” and also may be ironic: a basic tenet of avant-garde art is that there are no inviolable rules or universal standards when it comes to making, conceiving, or judging art. As Baldessari explained, “I love the idea that somebody would just say that this is right and this is wrong. So I decided I would have. . . a work of art that was wrong— which seems right to me.”
Baldessari played an important role as a widely respected mentor and teacher at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and the University of California, Los Angeles between 1970 and 2008.
Wall label, 2021.
