The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art presented the first exhibition of conceptual artist John Baldessari
Spanning over half a century, Baldessari expressed his ideas through an interplay of media such as painting, photography, video and cinema, books, lithography, objects and installations.



‘I like to create new meaning. The way to do that is to bring two things together… It could end up as ‘Dr. Frankenstein’ disastrous or a third meaning is created’
John Balsessari


The exhibition ‘1+1=1’ presented a series of paintings created in the past two years, in which the artist continues to explore the tense relationships between image and text in art.



The paintings offer a double interpretation of canonic artworks, divided into four interrelated series: Doublе Vision, Double Feature, Double Bill and Double Play.


In each series Baldessari reinterpreted famous artworks by Mane, Malevich, Gauguin, Duchamp, Warhol and other iconic artists.



Exhibition’s design is as cheeky as the exhibits: austere structures have many unexpected peep-holes. Artworks create wry compositions with each other.


Otherwise the design is deliberately mimimalistic: the only splashes of color, besides the artworks, are LEGO-shaped benches, scatered here and there.


Want more Baldessari, but don’t want where to start? This short documentary narrated by Tom Waits got you covered.