John Baldessari

Photo by Catherine Opie

John Baldessari in his Santa Monica studio

Photo by Catherine Opie

Maquettes for the “Noses & Ears, Etc.” series, top, and for the posters advertising its showing in 2006 at Cristina Guerra, Lisbon

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“I think it’s appropriate for our time, because people are worried now—about the world, about gasoline prices, about everything,” he says.

Two colorful photo collages pinned to his studio wall give a sense of his vision for this series, showing the furrows above the brow carved out and the brow itself literally raised in relief. No noses, lips or ears are visible. When asked about the medium of the final piece, he says: “The way I look at it, it’s painting and photography and sculpture. I’m always interested in merging things.”

The Marian Goodman show runs through January 10, 2009, a year that will also see the first leg of a major retrospective. It starts at the Tate Modern next October and travels to LACMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York. His Prada exhibition is also tentatively slated for 2009.

So how does he keep up with everything? He says his studio manager helps to deflect requests. He also works out four times a week. “I used to think of myself as a brain, but it dawned on me years ago that I have to take care of my body too,” he says.

It helps that he stopped teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles, three years ago and is trying to cut back on work travel. “People ask if I’m planning a vacation,” he says. “I say that any day I don’t have to spend in a hotel is a vacation.

“Every day it’s constant in my mind to stay focused on my job doing art,” he adds. “Everything else proceeds out of it. You can’t let the tail wag the dog.”   "In The Studio: John Baldessari" originally appeared in the December 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's December 2008 Table of Contents.