From June 27 through September 12, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is exhibiting a retrospective for American conceptual artist and painter John Baldessari titled Pure Beauty. The show features more than 150 works from 1962 to the present day. While the exhibit highlights the past, there is also a focus on the future. Corresponding with the show, Baldessari has teamed up with a design team to create an app for both iPhones and iPads. Some are calling the app, In Still Life 2001-2010, the first ever to be created by a contemporary artist. The program allows users to interact, tamper with, and ultimately recreate Abraham van Beyeren’s Banquet Still Life from 1667 by rearranging 38 items however they please.
“When someone completes their own still life using In Still Life 2001-2010 it becomes their own artwork,” says artist John Baldessari on the project’s official website. “It’s not mine. It’s theirs. Still lifes are about the fleeting things in life. Each object has a symbolic meaning.” So, what do you think? Is this the future of art, or just another example of LACMA’s digital savvy?
Below are user’s variations of John Baldessari’s In Still Life 2001-2010. Create your own at the official website, or download the iPhone app for free at iTunes.
[Main image via Refinery29]