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Top 25 John Baldessari Quotes (2025 Update)

John Baldessari Quote: “Talent is cheap, you have to be possessed or obsessed, rather. You really have to feel like you cannot not do art, and that is something you can’t will.”

1. “Talent is cheap, you have to be possessed or obsessed, rather. You really have to feel like you cannot not do art, and that is something you can’t will.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “There’s no such thing as a bad photograph.”

2. “There’s no such thing as a bad photograph.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “Probably one of the worst things that happened to photography is that cameras have viewfinders.”

3. “Probably one of the worst things that happened to photography is that cameras have viewfinders.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “If you’re smart, you abandon the things that didn’t work out so well, and you enlarge upon the things that seem to be successful.”

4. “If you’re smart, you abandon the things that didn’t work out so well, and you enlarge upon the things that seem to be successful.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “I don’t try to be funny. It’s just that I feel the world is a little bit absurd and off-kilter and I’m sort of reporting.”

5. “I don’t try to be funny. It’s just that I feel the world is a little bit absurd and off-kilter and I’m sort of reporting.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “I think I live such a boring life. But I can’t imagine any other kind of life, so I guess it’s the life I want.”

6. “I think I live such a boring life. But I can’t imagine any other kind of life, so I guess it’s the life I want.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “I go back and forth between wanting to be abundantly simple and maddeningly complex.”

7. “I go back and forth between wanting to be abundantly simple and maddeningly complex.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “I will not make anymore boring art.”

8. “I will not make anymore boring art.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “I think art, if it’s meaningful at all, is a conversation with other artists. You say something, they say something, you move back and forth.”

9. “I think art, if it’s meaningful at all, is a conversation with other artists. You say something, they say something, you move back and forth.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “It’s human desire to be understood. And we always feel we’re not understood.”

10. “It’s human desire to be understood. And we always feel we’re not understood.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “I can’t imagine a life without thinking, doing art. I don’t feel any need to be a world traveler or an adventurer. I’m very happy doing what I’m doing. I think somehow I know that I should have a larger vision of art, but I can’t think of what that would be.”

11. “I can’t imagine a life without thinking, doing art. I don’t feel any need to be a world traveler or an adventurer. I’m very happy doing what I’m doing. I think somehow I know that I should have a larger vision of art, but I can’t think of what that would be.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “I was getting tired of hearing the complaint, ‘My kid could do this,’ and ‘We don’t get it. What’s modern art? Blah, blah, blah.’ And I wondered what would really happen if you gave people what they wanted, something they always look at.”

12. “I was getting tired of hearing the complaint, ‘My kid could do this,’ and ‘We don’t get it. What’s modern art? Blah, blah, blah.’ And I wondered what would really happen if you gave people what they wanted, something they always look at.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “Look at the subject as if you have never seen it before. Examine it from every side. Draw its outline with your eyes or in the air with your hands, and saturate yourself with it.”

13. “Look at the subject as if you have never seen it before. Examine it from every side. Draw its outline with your eyes or in the air with your hands, and saturate yourself with it.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “The idea of vaudeville clowns and court jesters is always to show the flaw, to point out what’s not working and why it’s not coherent.”

14. “The idea of vaudeville clowns and court jesters is always to show the flaw, to point out what’s not working and why it’s not coherent.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “If I saw the art around me that I liked, then I wouldn’t do art.”

15. “If I saw the art around me that I liked, then I wouldn’t do art.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “Well, why is this art? Why isn’t that art?”

16. “Well, why is this art? Why isn’t that art?”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “I was always interested in language. I thought, why not? If a painting, by the normal definition of the term, is paint on canvas, why can’t it be painted words on canvas?”

17. “I was always interested in language. I thought, why not? If a painting, by the normal definition of the term, is paint on canvas, why can’t it be painted words on canvas?”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “Ideally I would like the work to be a hybrid between painting and photography.”

18. “Ideally I would like the work to be a hybrid between painting and photography.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “I always felt like I was right out of Dickens, looking in the window of the Christmas feast, but not at the feast.”

19. “I always felt like I was right out of Dickens, looking in the window of the Christmas feast, but not at the feast.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “I used to jokingly say, “I don’t teach art. I’m an art doctor.” Students come to me and say, “My art’s sick,” and we help them make it well.”

20. “I used to jokingly say, “I don’t teach art. I’m an art doctor.” Students come to me and say, “My art’s sick,” and we help them make it well.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “I want to produce images that startle one into recollection.”

21. “I want to produce images that startle one into recollection.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “That should be the goal for all art, to be as simple as a flashcard.”

22. “That should be the goal for all art, to be as simple as a flashcard.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “Artists are better at finding a way to kill their time.”

23. “Artists are better at finding a way to kill their time.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “Most of my friends are women. I think women are more interesting to talk to.”

24. “Most of my friends are women. I think women are more interesting to talk to.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “Writing helped me understand what I was thinking about.”

25. “Writing helped me understand what I was thinking about.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “I could never figure out why photography and art had separate histories. So I decided to explore both.”

26. “I could never figure out why photography and art had separate histories. So I decided to explore both.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “I think the term ‘conceptual art’ is a useful term for writers, a basket to put people in, like Pop Art or Impressionism or whatever.”

27. “I think the term ‘conceptual art’ is a useful term for writers, a basket to put people in, like Pop Art or Impressionism or whatever.”

— John Baldessari

John Baldessari Quote: “I didn’t see painters doing paintings of glassware and glass shelves or sand dunes and receding snow fences. Why does that interest photographers and not artists?”

28. “I didn’t see painters doing paintings of glassware and glass shelves or sand dunes and receding snow fences. Why does that interest photographers and not artists?”

— John Baldessari

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