John Baldessari

Sometimes a change of place is much more than a change of scenery. The way Richard Diebenkorn told it, moving from the Bay Area to Southern California in the fall of 1966 was a catalyst that changed the direction of his painting. Before then, the artist was known for abandoning the mission of Abstract Expressionism and reintroducing the human figure into his work. Six or eight months after the move, and after taking over painter Sam Francis' studio a block from the beach in the Ocean Park neighborhood of Santa Monica, something broke wide open.

Sometimes a change of place is much more than a change of scenery. The way Richard Diebenkorn told it, moving from the Bay Area to Southern California in the fall of 1966 was a catalyst that changed the direction of his painting. Before then, the artist was known for abandoning the mission of Abstract Expressionism and reintroducing the human figure into his work. Six or eight months after the move, and after taking over painter Sam Francis' studio a block from the beach in the Ocean Park neighborhood of Santa Monica, something broke wide open.

John Baldessari, one of the formidable art figures of the last half century — and certainly one of the key factors in the formulation of Los Angeles as an art hub — will get his due with the most extensive retrospective of his work to date. "John Baldessari: Pure Beauty" is composed of more than 150 career-spanning works from 1962 to the present and includes all manner of the pioneering conceptual artist's photo compositions, videos, artist's books and works on canvas.

EVENTS Marc Maron The sardonic comedian and host of the popular podcast "WTF" visits UCB for a live show and a screening of "The Voice of Something. " The documentary short follows a day in his life as a comedian — one that takes place in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11. Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, 5919 Franklin Ave., L.A. 7 p.m. $5. (323) 908-8702. http://www.ucbtheatre.com. Evaluating Stories of Witchcraft in 17th-Century England Just in time for Halloween, UC Davis English professor Frances E. Dolan sets the record straight about witches.

It's not surprising to find industry talent among John Baldessari's former students, along with various sculptors, painters, photographers, conceptual artists and installation artists. Some artist-teachers are famous for inspiring students who advance their own medium, like Bernd and Hilla Becher and the Dusseldorf photographers who followed them. Baldessari, who tends to mix mediums, is the opposite. For this reason, it would be extremely difficult to identify any "school" of Baldessari.

It's a still life--that is, until you move it. That's the unusual nature of L.A. artist John Baldessari's first digital online project: "Still Life: Choosing and Arranging," inaugurating the Museum of Contemporary Art's new digital gallery, which launches today at http://www.moca.org.

Artist John Baldessari, who works with photographs and words the way other artists work with paints, considers just about everything raw material. His barn of a studio in Santa Monica, where he's been since 1971, is a tangle of books and magazines, postcards and movie stills. On a recent day, a visitor's cup of freshly brewed coffee rested on a stack of books and clippings that challenged gravity. Clearly, this is a man consumed by the written word.

The exhibition of John Baldessari's new work at Margo Leavin Gallery leads off with something rather startling: Installed opposite the gallery's front door is a two-panel painting, 19 feet in length. This big painting is a surprise because of its author, not its size.

When artist John Baldessari revisited his early work during the run of "National City," an exhibition of his art of the '60s and '70s presented last year at San Diego's Museum of Contemporary Art, he was reminded of a good idea he'd had awhile ago. Realizing it was in sync with a direction he had been considering for his work, he decided to develop it further.

If you've ever been a student of John Baldessari's--when he was a member of the original faculty of UC San Diego's art department more than 30 years ago, or during his 20 years at the California Institute of the Arts, or now that he's a part-timer at UCLA--chances are you've had assignments returned to you with his rubber-stamped responses imploring you to "Learn to Think" or "Learn to Dream."

Stored in a secure facility in the Cayman Islands, Mika Rottenberg's new sculpture will be sold in shares to collectors who have never seen it in person. The only public image of the work features a smiling New York art dealer, Mary Boone, holding the precious object: a raggedy cube made of raw latex, rotting lettuce and tins of blush. Whether you think this arrangement is brilliant or ridiculous probably depends on how you feel about the contemporary art market. Rottenberg, named one of the 10 most promising New York artists by New York magazine in 2007, is interested in the mysterious mechanisms by which art's value is created.

John Baldessari, one of the formidable art figures of the last half century — and certainly one of the key factors in the formulation of Los Angeles as an art hub — will get his due with the most extensive retrospective of his work to date. "John Baldessari: Pure Beauty" is composed of more than 150 career-spanning works from 1962 to the present and includes all manner of the pioneering conceptual artist's photo compositions, videos, artist's books and works on canvas.

When John Baldessari's retrospective "Pure Beauty" opens at the L.A. County Museum of Art on June 27, expect to see several generations of artists on hand for the opening-week events. For as long as he has been making art in Los Angeles, Baldessari has also been, in a less tangible way, making artists: offering suggestions, encouragement and above all conversation to twenty-something students eager to follow in his footsteps by living a life of art. Follow they did, with their own gallery shows, museum shows, teaching gigs, and some commercial successes that have at times even surpassed their teacher's.

It's extremely difficult to identify any "school" of Baldessari. But it's easy to find grateful students. Here, five of them share campus and off-campus memories. Jim Welling, B.F.A. CalArts, 1972, and M.F.A. CalArts, 1974: John was on leave when I arrived at CalArts, but I took his post-studio class as soon as I could. The main thing I remember about the class is that John would have this old, funky suitcase spray-painted black, full of art catalogs from Europe. He would spread them out so we could look at them.

Reviews by David Pagel (D.P.) and Leah Ollman (L.O.). Compiled by Grace Krilanovich. Critics' Choices John Baldessari: Blue Line (Holbein) One of the most sharply focused shows of recent memory. It's also one of the most moving. Its two pieces, installed in three galleries, reveal a side of the 78-year-old artist often overshadowed by the irreverent wit and gee-whizzing of Baldessari's hilariously deadpan pictures. Mortality and memory take center stage while leaving plenty of room for humor and happenstance.

I have seen the future of the video art museum, and it is the H BOX. Of course, when I see the H BOX, I also feel I'm looking at a phantom from the past, something from a never-released episode of "Lost in Space" in which this equally dorky/cool-looking intergalactic module drops from the sky and changes everyone's perspective.

In 1970, the same year John Baldessari settled into the book-lined studio he still occupies today, his work was the subject of a one-person exhibition at the old Eugenia Butler Gallery. The aspirations for that particular event are unrecorded, but the moment of his arrival in Los Angeles is worth pondering nonetheless. For today, Baldessari's career is the subject of the most eagerly anticipated museum retrospective to be mounted for any American artist this year.