John Baldessari was born in National City, CA, in 1931, and has lived in Santa Monica since 1970. He received a B.A. and an M.A. from San Diego State College, and studied at UC Berkeley, UCLA, the Otis Art Institute, and Chouinard Art Institute. In 2004, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received many awards, including an honorary Ph.D., San Diego State University; the Spectrum International Award for Photography of the Foundation of Lower Saxony; the College Art Association Award; the Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts, CA; the Oscar Kokoschka Prize, Austria; and the Guggenheim Award.

A two-part retrospective of his work opened at the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien and the Kunsthaus Graz in Austria in 2005. A retrospective survey opens this fall at the Museé d'Art Contemporain in Nimes, France, running through January 8, 2006. His solo exhibition, Somewhere Between Almost Right and Not Quite (with Orange), was held last fall/winter at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions were held at Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik (2001); the Sprengel Museum, Hannover, and the Staatliche Kunstammlungen Dresden (1999); the Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Roverto, Trento, Italy (2000–2001); and the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich and the Witte de With, Rotterdam (1998). In 1996, National City was shown at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art. In 1995–1996, a retrospective, This Not That, was shown at Cornerhouse in Manchester, England, and traveled to London, Stuttgart, Ljubljana, Oslo, and Lisbon. In 1994, The Museum of Modern Art presented Artist’s Choice: John Baldessari, and in 1990–1992 a retrospective survey of his work was shown at MOCA, Los Angeles, which traveled to the San Francisco MOMA, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Whitney Museum, and the Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal. In 1981, John Baldessari: Work 1966–1980 was shown at the New Museum, New York, and traveled to the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; the CAM, Houston; the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; and the Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany. Mr. Baldessari’s work was included in the 47th Venice Biennial (1997); the Carnegie International (1985–1986); the Whitney Biennial (1983); and Documenta 7 and 5, Kassel (1982 and 1972).