Artist
John Baldessari American, 1931–2020
CultureAmerican
Titles
- Astronauts and Businessmen
Date1988
MediumGelatin silver prints with applied acrylic paint
DimensionsImage: 72 5/16 × 45 5/8 in. (183.6 × 115.9 cm)
Mount: 72 5/16 × 45 5/8 in. (183.6 × 115.9 cm)
Mount: 72 5/16 × 45 5/8 in. (183.6 × 115.9 cm)
Credit LineGift of Manfred Heiting, The Manfred Heiting Collection
Object number2002.2977
Not on view
Explore Further
Department
PhotographySpecial Collections
Object Type
John Baldessari is best known for his juxtapositions of
found photographs or film stills, removing them from their original context to
expose the many ways in which photographic images can be understood. Baldessari
made this collage just after the United States launched the manned space
mission Discovery in 1986. Three astronauts stride confidently out of a space
vehicle, above a group portrait of nine suited men. Obscuring the figures’
faces with circles—primary colored for the astronauts, black for the
businessmen—Baldessari erases their individuality and underscores the link between
the space program and the economic prosperity of the 1980s.
ProvenancePaceMacGill Gallery; Manfred Heiting; MFAH, 2002.
Exhibition History"Contemporary Photos from the Manfred Heiting Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May 17–August 10, 2003.
"Contemporary Photography from the Collection of the MFAH," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, August 15, 2003–January 4, 2004.
"Los Angeles," The Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, March 25–July 5, 2009.
"Utopia/ Dystopia: Construction and Destruction in Photography and Collage," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 11–June 10, 2012.
"Shooting the Moon: Photographs from the Museum's Collection 50 Years after Apollo 11," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, July 20–September 2, 2019.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.
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![Untitled [color samples]](/internal/media/dispatcher/295715/thumbnail)
John Baldessari
no date
Acrylic with annotations in ballpoint pen on white wove paper
96.89.42