John Baldessari

Conceptual Deconstruction and Architectural Discourse: John Baldessari at the Museum Haus Lange

The American artist John Baldessari (1931–2020) is regarded as one of the most influential pioneers and leading figures of international Conceptual Art. Renowned for his cross-media practice, which combined painting, photography, text and video, he devoted his life to exploring visual sign systems and deconstructing traditional ways of seeing.

In 2009, Baldessari was invited to create a site-specific project at the Museum Haus Lange in Krefeld, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Under the title “Brick Bldg, Lg Windows w/ Xlent Views, Partially Furnished, Renowned Architect”, he realised a fundamental artistic intervention there that radically questioned the relationship between modern architecture, transparency and the perception of space.

Baldessari blocked the iconic, expansive window fronts of the Bauhaus building from the outside with monumental brick-patterned wallpaper, whilst inside he displayed posters of Californian landscapes and lifestyle motifs, resulting in a complete reversal of interior and exterior space.

The creation of this temporary installation was filmed by Ralph Goertz during the final stages of its construction. In an exclusive interview, he spoke with Baldessari about the theoretical foundations of his intervention. In it, Baldessari reflects on the conditions of artistic interventions in historically charged architecture, the antithetical dialogue between Mies van der Rohe’s glass-clad modernism and the material weight of brick, and his own humorous and analytical method of drawing the audience into an expanded symbolic system – the ‘Baldessari Universe’.

The documentary thus makes a significant contribution to the media-based reception and archiving of a key moment in the recent history of exhibitions in the Rhineland.