John Baldessari

                                                                            Baldessari Sings Lewitt
                                                                            1972, 15 min, b&w, sound

In an ironic intersection of two systems - arcane theoretical discourse and popular music - Baldessari sings a tract by Minimalist artist Sol Lewitt. Introducing this performance by noting that "these sentences have been hidden too long in exhibition catalogues," Baldessari sings Lewitt's forty-five-point tract on Conceptual Art to the tunes of The Star-Spangled Banner and Heaven, among other songs. Baldessari's witty "art aria" functions as a meta-conceptual exercise.