7484

"I was eager to discover contemporary art so I transferred from a traditional art school to CalArts in 1971. John brought some of the artists I was interested in to speak in his class: Keith Sonnier, Bruce Nauman, Richard Serra, Pat Steir among some of the memorable visitors. Perhaps even more importantly, John returned with catalogues from his trips and introduced me to a whole spectrum of European artists, especially Marcel Broodthaers, who would be key to my development as an artist. Since he traveled so much, John hired extremely interesting visitors to sub in his class and this is how I met Michael Asher and Dan Graham who later became friends. And finally, John's relatively open teaching style allowed me to track the secretive sorts of phenomena in my work which would blossom not at CalArts but a few years later."-James Welling (Photography & Media MFA 74, BFA 72)