Baldessari – awarded a Golden Lion for lifetime achievements at the last Venice Biennale – likes to surprise people, taking things to the extreme, sensationally changing direction, destroying and then starting again. His strongest action came in 1970 when he set fire to all the pictures he had produced between 1953 and 1966 in homage to Nietzsche. The result was The Cremation Project, an urn containing biscuits made out of the ashes of the paintings. The installation in Milan is equally surprising, but goes in the opposite direction to that of 40 years ago. The extreme creative synthesis of destruction gives way to decoration. The Giacometti Variations", curated by Germano Celant, has certainly stunned many in terms of the unpredictable evolution of a master of conceptual art, who sees his "Prada operation" from a dual perspective: in physical-architectural terms, it speaks of his relationship with space and love of height; socially, it conjures up a depiction of the Zeitgeist using a parade of humans produced out of a fusion of art and fashion.
"I've always wanted to do tall paintings and sculptures", he says. "I suspect it's because I am quite tall. I've had little opportunity since most galleries have wall heights that mirror the wall heights of collector's homes." So, the idea of the huge Giacometti-style statues is apparently the fruit of this longing for height as well as of a visit to the Haus der Kunst in Munich (where he held an exhibition years ago), which made him think of tall works that could capture the space. Baldessari saw taking the existing and extreme idea of the Swiss sculptor's standing sculptures to even greater extremes, dressing them and placing them in a fashion location such as the Prada Foundation as the crowning achievement of his "work method". But then, why be surprised? Art and fashion have walked hand in hand for years (see "Arte di moda" by Fréderic Bonnet, Domus 924, April 2009) and more than a few artists have embarked on fruitful ventures with fashion houses (maisons) that have resulted in works or installations (see Richard Prince, Daniel Buren, Takashi Murakami).
Whether this tendency to mix the two genres is a good thing or a bad thing is not the issue. What is clear is that it is a method that is gaining force, seeing that even a radical like Baldessari is playing the game. Although, it must be said, he played it his way. When choosing the looks for his 'models' he was inspired by archetypes stemming from of a highly personal fusion of film, fashion and fantasy that has produced human types that reflect society as the artist sees it. There is an ironic re-visiting of 1950s glamour with a Marilyn-style dress with a large pink bow – but literally nailed to the ground – followed by a Joan of Arc at the stake, proudly bearing a stack of books on her head, a most serious "Cartesian woman" 'wearing' a hula hoop, a modern traveller in a Humphrey Bogart-style trench-coat and (Prada?) suitcases, a King-Kong woman besieged by miniature planes, a female clown, one wearing the ruby shoes of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, a Rapunzel with a blue ladder, a female bullfighter… The citations in the Giacometti 'variations', to use Baldessari's words, are immediately recognisable. They are also a medium firmly rooted in the artist's DNA and he uses them to express his vision of the world and its people. Is it a parody? "I'm not sure", he replies. "I hate categories and definitions- I certainly am borrowing. Isn't this what artists do? Doesn't art arise from art? What I am doing is furthering an idea- that is the requirement of any good art", elegantly dismissing, with the old radical approach, all possible criticism.