Moca: This Is Not to Be Looked at Hardcover Book

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MOCA: This Is Not To Be Looked At.
This Is Not To Be Looked At: Highlights from the collection of … Read more MOCA: This Is Not To Be Looked At.
This Is Not To Be Looked At: Highlights from the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Hardcover – April 1, 2008
by Paul Schimmel (Author), Ann Goldstein (Author), Rebecca Morse (Author).

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (April 1, 2008).
Language ‏ : ‎ English.
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 384 pages.
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.75 x 1.75 x 12.75 inches.

John Baldessari’s This Is Not to Be Looked At consists of a black-and-white photographic print (depicting an issue of Artforum magazine) of a reproduction (on the magazine’s cover) of a painting (minimalist artist Frank Stella’s 1966 Union III), on canvas. Baldessari’s bald-faced appropriation and layering of preexisting images demonstrates his skepticism about artistic originality. He even hired a professional sign painter to write the caption “THIS IS NOT TO BE LOOKED AT.” That phrase paradoxically implies that visual contemplation is neither the best nor only way to engage with art. Baldessari’s defiant refusal to produce beautiful, original images suggests that art can be something other than an optical experience. He proposes instead that what is central is the artist’s concept or idea, irrespective of the artwork’s visual, material form.

Featuring the work of more than 150 exemplary international artists, this first comprehensive catalogue of the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, is published to accompany the museum's major 2008 permanent collection exhibition Collecting Collections. With short texts on each artist, as well as essays by Chief Curator Paul Schimmel and Senior Curator Ann Goldstein, it is a major milestone in the museum's publishing history. Featured artists include historical figures like Ad Reinhardt, Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Diane Arbus, Alberto Giacometti, Morris Louis, Mark Rothko, Garry Winogrand, Barnett Newman, Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning and Piet Mondrian; contemporary Los Angeles artists like Doug Aitken, John Baldessari, Chris Burden, Vija Celmins, Mike Kelley, Catherine Opie, Nancy Rubins, Paul McCarthy, Lari Pittman, Diana Thater, James Welling, Laura Owens, Bill Owens, Charles Ray, Raymond Pettibon, Jason Rhoades and Edward Ruscha; New York artists like Vito Acconci, Robert Gober, Nan Goldin, Brice Marden, David Salle, Claes Oldenburg, Julian Schnabel, Cady Noland, Richard Prince, Kara Walker, Robert Rauschenberg, Cindy Sherman and Kiki Smith; and international artists like Francis Alÿs, Maurizio Cattelan, Thomas Demand, Rineke Dijkstra, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Olafur Eliasson, Rodney Graham, Andreas Gursky, Mona Hatoum, William Kentridge, Anselm Kiefer, Chris Ofili, Gabriel Orozco, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Rirkrit Tiravanija. The title This Is Not To Be Looked At is derived from a work in the collection by John Baldessari, dated 1966-68, which reproduces an Artforum cover that features a Frank Stella painting also owned by MOCA, titled "Union III" from the Irregular Polygon series (1966).
condition:
Hardcover without dust jacket as issued heavy shelf wear rubbing to covers, pages yellowed at edges; no internal marks. See less