JOHN BALDESSARI (1931-2020)
JOHN BALDESSARI (1931-2020)
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The Collection of Margo Leavin
JOHN BALDESSARI (1931-2020)

Midget and Leaping Cat (Version 1)

Details
JOHN BALDESSARI (1931-2020)
Midget and Leaping Cat (Version 1)
black and white photograph on paperboard
36 x 48 in. (91.4 x 121.9 cm.)
Executed in 1984.
Provenance
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, benefit auction, courtesy of the artist
Robert Egleston, Los Angeles
Private collection, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Literature
J. Hugo, "Parables and Parodies," Artweek, vol. 15, no. 33, October 1984, p. 11.
J. Baldessari, "Camera Austria: The Power and the Glory of Photography," Symposium Uber Fotografie VI, Vienna, 1985, p. 10 (illustrated).
P. Pardo and R. Dean, John Baldessari Catalogue Raisonné, Volume Two: 1975-1986, New Haven, 2013, p. 317, no. 1984.64 (illustrated).
Exhibited
New York, Sonnabend Gallery, John Baldessari, April 1984.
Los Angeles, Margo Leavin Gallery, John Baldessari, September-October 1984.
California, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, John Baldessari: California Viewpoints, August-October 1986, p. 19.
Breda, The Netherlands, Museum De Beyerd, John Baldessari: Breda Fotografica '94, July-September 1994.

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Lot Essay

"I'd like to think that this scene could happen, that the cat would be leaping at the admonishing midget (Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam"?) while the seated man and the man in the bathrobe watch the fallen man.
I have always believed, as a working principle, that art can be a convincing lie, and certainly we know that photography can lie. I think that this is a decisive moment arising out of a convincing lie. Also the entire scene recalls for me Matisse's "Red Studio," with a bit more precariousness."
– John Baldessari

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