John Baldessari, John Baldessari Pillow Cases in Bespoke Presentation Box (Hand signed by John Baldessari) for The Thing Quarterly Issue 22, 2014

John Baldessari

John Baldessari Pillow Cases in Bespoke Presentation Box (Hand signed by John Baldessari) for The Thing Quarterly Issue 22, 2014

Silkscreen on 100% cotton 320 thread count sateen pillowcases (Hand signed by John Baldessari)

Boldly signed in ink by John Baldessari on one of the pillowcases (see photo)

Unframed

One of the pillowcases is hand signed in ink by John Baldessari:
John Baldessari was one of the artists who were invited to contribute an object (or "thing") with text for a special project for "The Thing" publication (read on for more on "The Thing;) ; the conceptual object therefore had to incorporate text. Baldessari's contribution in 2014 was a silkscreened pillowcase with text. A limited (unknown) number of these pillowcases were marketed and sold as a set of two in a bespoke box. However, exceptionally, Baldessari hand signed a very few of pillowcases in ink. This is one of the very special sets bearing one hand signed pillow case - purchased directly from "The Thing". (a copy of the 2014 receipt is shown here.) The rest of these boxed sets were not hand signed. (Even the unsigned sets rarely appear on the secondary market; but the ones we've seen are all unsigned - unlike the present set.)

The pillowcase is brand new, and will look gorgeous once pressed and framed by a professional framer.
More about this boxed set:
Issue 22 of THE THING Quarterly is by LA-based conceptual artist John Baldessari. It consists of two 100% cotton sateen pillowcases featuring an image of a woman clutching a pillow. The black and white image is taken from a Hollywood film still in Baldessari's collection and has been silkscreened on each pillowcase with environmentally-friendly, water-based ink. The pillowcases are standard-sized and envelope-style. For those who like their thread count high, the issue clocks in at a solid 320 thread count.
Measurements:
Box
10.5 inches by 13 inches by 2 inches
Pillow
20 inches vertical by 26 inches

What was The Thing Quarterly?
THE THING was an experimental publication created in collaboration with Will Rogan as part of an artist residency. We saw it as a quarterly periodical in the form of an object. Each year, four artists, writers, musicians or filmmakers were invited to create an everyday object that somehow incorporates text. The object is reproduced and hand wrapped at wrapping parties and then mailed to the homes of the subscribers with the help of the United States Postal Service.

It began as part of an artist residency in San Francisco’s Southern Exposure. Will and I had met in grad school at UC Berkeley and discovered our mutual affinity for quarterlies. He was a librarian at SFAI for five years and I had been a high school teacher for five years. WE were both interested pushing the boundaries of publication. Our plan was to create a 1 year publication with four artists, but from the very start the project generated so much interest and international excitement that we found ourselves running a publication complete with a brick and mortar storefront and a staff of four individuals. After 10 years, 34 issues, 59 projects and countless live events, we decided to end the publication in order to pursue our individual projects. We are still working together on a less ambitious new project, and hope to launch it at some point in 2021.

CONTRIBUTORS: have included John Baldessari, Dave Eggers, Miranda July, Allora & Calzadilla, Starlee Kine, Matthew Higgs, Kota Ezawa, Trisha Donelly, Tucker Nichols, Lucy Pullen, Ryan Gander, Allora & Calzadilla, Mike Mills, Tauba Auerbach, Jonathan Lethem, Brian Roeittinger, Gabrielle Orozco, Trevor Paglen, and Amanda Ross-Ho. The issues have ranged from pull-down window shades with text silk-screened onto them, to wall clocks, to boomerangs.

PRESS, RESIDENCIES AND ART FAIRS: With an international subscriber base of 1000 plus, THE THING has been featured on PRI’s Marketplace, Frieze Magazine, the SF Chronicle, the New York Times and the T magazine, the LA Times, Readymade, Art21 Blog, the New Yorker Blog, and Artforum. THE THING has run projects at Southern Exposure in San Francisco, Artists Space in NY and Lisson Gallery in London and SFMOMA. It has participated in art fairs in New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Paris and Tokyo.

COLLECTIONS: THE THING is in the collections of the The Getty, National Gallery of Canada, The McEvoy Fine Art Collection, Kadist, SFMOMA, UC Berkeley Library, The San Francisco Art Institute, the San Francisco Public Library, and the Baltimore Museum of Modern Art.

About John Baldessari:
John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020) was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California. Initially a painter, Baldessari began to incorporate texts and photography into his canvases in the mid-1960s. In 1970 he began working in printmaking, film, video, installation, sculpture and photography. He created thousands of works which demonstrate—and, in many cases, combine—the narrative potential of images and the associative power of language within the boundaries of the work of art. His art has been featured in more than 200 solo exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe. His work influenced that of Cindy Sherman, David Salle, Annette Lemieux, and Barbara Kruger among others.