
Morisa Rosenberg
Head of Department
This auction has ended. View lot details



Sold for US$10,240 inc. premium
Our Prints & Multiples specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialist
Head of Department

Specialist, Head of Sale

Cataloguer
A central theme in John Baldessari's work is the tension between parts and whole — a conceptual play with fragmentation and incompleteness. His multi-part prints, like Fallen Easel, invite the viewer to become an active participant, bridging the visual gaps and constructing meaning from what is left unsaid. In Fallen Easel, individually framed components are arranged in an irregular yet meticulously organized formation, disrupting the traditional rectangular frame and instead creating an architectural composition. Baldessari referred to this as "building architecturally," using print to "punch the idea of [the rectangle]" through unexpected shapes and combinations. The title itself suggests a collapse or the "fall" of easel painting's dominance, pointing instead to the expressive and exploratory potential of printmaking. Through this work, Baldessari not only challenges how images are constructed and perceived, but also expands the medium's possibilities, treating the wall as both a conceptual space and a site of dynamic, structural display.