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A B C Art (Low Relief), 2010, Mixografía® print on handmade paper in 32-parts by John Baldessari

John Baldessari

A B C Art (Low Relief), 2010

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A B C Art (Low Relief) detail 1
A B C Art (Low Relief) detail 2
A B C Art (Low Relief) scale

Artwork Details

ArtistJohn Baldessari
TitleA B C Art (Low Relief)
Year of creation2010
TechniqueMixografía® print on handmade paper in 32-parts
Dimensions82 x 248 x 1 in
Marks & InscriptionsSigned in pencil, lower left, "Baldessari 10" and editioned in pencil, lower left, "4/7"
Edition4 of 7, 5 AP, 5 HC , Proofs: 0
Provenance

Mixografía Print Shop and Gallery

A B C Art (Low Relief) unframed

John Baldessari's A B C Art (Low Relief) Part II: PMBWFDLJ (Pangram) (2010) turns the child's alphabet book into a thirty-two-part wall work. Baldessari spent decades mining the tools of instruction — flashcards, primers, diagrams — for their deadpan authority; here he takes the simplest: one letter, one picture. The title's eight letters begin the words of a pangram, a sentence using every letter of the alphabet.


Serif capitals spell it across twenty feet: PACK MY BOX WITH FIVE DOZEN LIQUOR JUGS. Each letter carries a raised object that names it, though the vocabulary is nobody's nursery — a brain for B, a noose for N, a revolver for G. Others arrive by shorthand: a cotton swab for Q, a Christmas tree for X, a flying saucer for U. Mixografía casts real objects into a metal plate and presses it into wet handmade paper, so each icon is genuinely sculpted into the sheet.


Produced by Mixografía, Los Angeles, this is number four from an edition of seven, with five artist's proofs and five hors commerce — a remarkably small run at this scale. Baldessari's work is held by the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, LACMA, and Tate, and Mixografía issues a certificate of authenticity on request. Few of his editions claim a wall this completely.

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