Yours in Food, John Baldessari - Hardcover

Baldessari, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1568984952 ISBN 13: 9781568984957

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004

Synopsis

In John Baldessari's new book, Yours in Food, the founding member of the conceptual art movement explores America at the table, savoring the nuances of breaking bread in carefully composed vignettes culled appropriated video and film.
Reflections on food and eating specially commissioned from a smorgasbord of contemporary writers on culture and the arts, from novelist David Eggers to musician David Byrne, offer up the perfect accompaniment to Baldessari's work. Paired with his images, these humorous, insightful, and, in some cases, bizarre meditations investigate one of the most fundamental and telling of all human experiences.
A visual and intellectual feast, Yours in Food is sure to entertain and delight readers of fiction, art history, and cultural criticism and all lovers of food.
A Blind Spot Book published by Princeton Architectural Press.

About this title

About the Author

John Baldessari is one of the most influential American artists to emerge since the mid-1960s. His droll and ironic composite photocollages, installations, and videotapes have shed new light on the nature of perception, meaning, and interpretation.

From Publishers Weekly

Conceptual artist Baldessari’s latest book (after The Metaphor Problem Again) looks a bit like a high-end impulse buy: every few pages there are manipulated photos of food and eaters; in between one can find short essays and stories by famous folks. The broad theme of food holds the whole party together, allowing Paul Auster’s memories of poverty in his young adulthood (excerpted from The Red Notebook) to rub shoulders with musician David Byrne’s intriguing but abruptly curtailed thoughts on "knifeless eating" and writer John Haskell’s short story "Toast." Art critic Peter Schjeldahl contributes a meandering essay on "taste" and Glenn O’Brien tosses in memories of his halcyon days in Andy Warhol’s New York, offering such insights as "Madonna had funny ideas about wine" and "when Max’s Kansas City closed... the abstract painters all had tabs in the five figures... The figurative painters were much more modest in their spending." The best of the group may be David Gilbert’s scathing satire "How to Cook a Turkey," in which a mother gives cooking instructions to her family and, in the process, reveals all her resentments and fears. Baldessari’s photographs, many of which seem to be film stills, are edited and cropped so as to obscure the subjects’ faces and shift the focus to the ritual of eating. This unusual perspective adds to the slightly menacing quality of the book, which should appeal to the artist’s fans but may leave other readers more uneasy than sated. Photos.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1568984952
• ISBN 13: 9781568984957
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 139