John Baldessari: I Hate L.A.

While a contemporary of the Ferus artists, John Baldesarri was never part of the group. He jokingly suggests that the reason he may have been excluded was because those artists "were all manly and good looking"... Although they shared a common sense of west coast irreverence in contrast to the predominant aesthetic, Baldesarri did not care much for their attitudes towards art. In subsequent years, he went about building a parallel "proposition" to the Ferus Group, creating a studio practice at CalArts that embraced European conceptualism. After having been rejected by Irving Blum and some of the Ferus artists, Baldesarri is now considered one of America's most respected artists over the last 25 years.

I Hate L.A.
"People ask me why I stay here and they think I love it and I say no I hate L.A. I always have to be a little bit angry, and L.A. makes me angry."