“Wrong” Baldessari, 1967

Can a “bad picture” ever be “great”?

This interesting question served as a challenge for artists in the past, now, and in the future to answer, but John Baldessari thought out of the box and created something out of the box. The first thing he considered was, how do you define “bad”?

The “Wrong” series was created by artist John Baldessari. The most famous, titled ‘wrong,’ shows an image with poor composition juxtaposed by the text ‘wrong’ below the photograph. In this photo, there are no focused points; characters/objects are off-centered; and the lighting is just way too dark in certain places. What even is this photo trying to show? So wrong.

Wrong. The word’s irony, such a direct critique of the picture, is what makes it so appealing. Baldessari intended for the picture to express the following message: why should we follow traditional standards for photography or art, and why must our work be evaluated? Eventually, the interesting part that John agreed on is that since an idea emerges personally, it cannot be correct, incorrect, or even judged by others.

Citations:

Baldessari, John “Wrong” Photograph. Dragon’s Exchange, ISB, 22nd August 2024. https://dx.isb.cn/dash/#/classroom/648607/sections/lesson/344114/page/344116/edit, Accessed Jan 13th 2024.

“Context – it’s about the title – Blog Post 1” ISB, https://dx.isb.cn/dash/#/classroom/648607/sections/lesson/344114/page/344116. Accessed Jan 13th 2024.