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Artist Daniel van Straalen (1987)
Title A Brief History of John Baldessari - Talent is cheap
A Brief History of John Baldessari - JB in front of Mondriaan
A Brief History of John Baldessari - JB in Venice
A Brief History of John Baldessari - JB bleu
A Brief History of John Baldessari - JB automobile
Year 2013
Material C-print
About the work
The formula behind this series is seemingly simple: a coloured dot hides the face of – presumably – the same man, recognisable by his white hair and beard. One work breaks the trend and reveals the origin of the images – the YouTube house style frames a film still from a documentary on John Baldessari. This American artist became famous for making copies of advertising images, film stills and everyday snapshots, which he decorated with coloured dots. By copying images from the documentary on Baldessari and covering his face with a dot, van Straalen creates an echo of Baldessari's work. An echo that raises questions about the authenticity of images in times of the internet and social media.
About the artist
Daniel van Straalen creates sculptures, installations and collages in which he combines everyday objects, memes and references to popular culture. His work is humorous and relatable, reflecting the stream of images that hits us on a day-to-day basis. It also raises questions of authenticity. Is it important to know where an image comes from? Does it matter if it is real or fake? And what happens when you remove a photo or object from its original context? Van Straalen studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague from 2008 to 2012 and at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam from 2012 to 2014.
In the collection
De Nederlandsche bank acquired the entire series in 2016. There are three other works by Van Straalen in the collection, titled Thinking Sucks, Who's who 3.2 and ME, my straw & my Capri Sun. Van Straalen's work shows that there is always coherence between works of art and that together they tell a story. This is in line with De Nederlandsche Bank’s view of art.