Well my father well both my parents are immigrants and
you know they want your
children to be successful, which usually means
making some money and
and then my I wanted to be an artist even back then and
My mother trying to make a compromise with my father
Who thought I should just get a job and he says well maybe could be maybe he could be an architect
But I didn't do that
[now] what I?
seem [to] have done is to gone into teaching and
I became fairly successful doing that and I don't teach anymore
But I had California institute of the arts
I
Was very instrumental in their [programming] and so a lot [of] well-known?
Artists like David Salle and Matt Mullican and Tony Oursler there were students of mine
I think [I] you know I have a pretty good reputation for doing that
But I don't teach anymore
What was the early fascination [you] said that that?
Already as a child you knew you wanted to be an artist
What was it that?
fascinated you about Art,
I guess I was in Grade school of Secondary
schools
I
was always selected by the art teacher to do some special project like Thanksgiving day or
Independence day and I made a big mural on the wall
So I I think that recognition recognition. Gave me the courage you know this sort of then go on
But looking back at the history of art. Did you have idols and why, who?
Sure on hero was always was?
Giotto
Any of you go into my studio next door you'll see a lot of painting standing
With elements of Giotto's paintings from the Iranian Chapel in Padua
and
Mantegna was always a big influence on me
I suppose like like that
So why did you decide [to] give up painting then?
Well because of the Sony Portapak and then then all kinds of other things became possible you know that
you began to hear this term conceptual art which I was part of
and where you did art with other means other than painting and
so the whole culture had moved on
If you one looks at at this [level], [you're] trying to produce an image
It's a lot faster [now] and and you can also deal with time
I've got to say a lot of the early
Art my video was pretty boring because it was either 30 minutes long or an hour long
Because that's the size of the reel of tape and nobody did editing at that time?
But things have changed quite a bit since and of course
What what is it that fascinates you about images because afterwards you
You kind of collected images and you reassess them and you you put your own
objects into them
I think two interests of mine have always been a
language and
imagery in combination
and I
Think that explains probably all of my work. You know that I always put [a] word or phrase
with the imagery I mean these works by Giotto I
Refer to each one well, they're all printed purple and each one
The text underneath is a different word for purple. You know lavender you would so on
And I continue to do that
and then you have a special love to
movie images
you collect the quite a few. I saw work where you kind of collected romantic images and violent images and
What is it it's fascinated you so much about movies?
I
think
years ago like I
was in a bookstore in Hollywood
Play was even interested in movies then for some reason anyway. They they sold
Eight-by-ten glossies for movies and I was spending you know
Till I got exhausted. Maybe an hour just
Picking any image that looked like that maybe I can use this and
Then I'd come back to my studio and lay them out all albums
I have you know I have a lot of tables, and then I [begin] to
Group them so one of the first ones interesting were people kissing
But you get the idea of a person doing this person doing [that] and then I?
Can be used [as] a source material for my work
let me ask you about Los Angeles because you kind of
everybody who hears your name other artists they speak of you as kind of the
Not the grandfather about the grandmaster of [bad] Maya you wanna learn how?
How did the City of Los Angeles?
shape the artist [John] [Baldessari] shape [potential]
influence I
you in LA artist?
I always hated that term
You know because I never had any recognition as an as an artist from the [Museum's]?
I had more recognition in New York
So I
didn't like being called a Los Angeles artist because I think
my perception of Los Angeles is very ugly and
But that's attractive to it's very seductive that is ugly uh so
Yeah, I
my work really comes out of
Not so much Los Angeles what that feeling of?
[it's] really distasteful. We don't think about
Why is Art?
Still [or] even getting more important in Society why is it an important part of society?
Well two good things
But not too good but one good thing is [that]?
it seems to be a
nutritional need for the public you know we build museums and
put
What somebody besides us art we put that in there [for] and people go there on?
With our kids and they look at it and listen to an explanation on their iphone and so on
So that's good
Don't mean the bad thing is [you] know they do you know the connection with money now and so I think?
They'll go into Museum and said
oh, you know think about [all] that rembrandt how much money it must cost if somebody were to buy it so that's
They're looking at it with the wrong
eyes around wrong values
What keeps you kind of driving? I mean you you I think you're 86 now. Yes, and
Surely you could say okay? I've done my
Work of art yeah, I just you know enjoy the day, but you come here every [day] in the studio working
What why is that? What drives you [on]?
well probably only my
Psychiatrist could tell me there, but I think it's just necessary to me is really nice. It's it's who I am I can't
[Imagine] a life without doing art I
mean I wake up thinking about art I
about an all day long and go to sleep at night thinking about art and
In the shower dry feet it. That's that's what I do