John Baldessari – Cigar smoke to match clouds that are different (by sight – side view); Throwing Balls in the air to get a straitgh Line (Best of 36 Tries)
“Subsequently, Baldessari devised a number of different methods for arriving at unorthodox pictoral solutions that are connected to the real world by photography. Cigar Smoke to Match Clouds That Are Different (By Sight – Side View) (1972-73) and Throwing Balls in the Air to Get a Straiht Line (Best of 36 Tries) (1972-73) demonstrate how camera frees the artist from hand-drawn, formal invention and its accompanying decision-making processes by mechanically providing him with given shapes. In the first work, puffs of smoke from the artist’s mouth are paired with rectangular reproductions of clouds in a group of prints and, in the second, rubber balls assume different configurations against the blackground of the sky in each of four prints.”
in Rorimer – New art in the 60s and 70s, redifinig reality, Thames and Hudson (p.132)
