Color Corrected Studio (with Window)

Color Corrected Studio from 1972/1973 consists of three photographs that all show the same view of John Baldessari’s studio in Santa Monica. The three photos are very different. The first is a simple photo. The second exhibits geometric colour markings which the artist painted directly onto its surface. This picture served, in turn, as the template for actually colouring the work space. The title—"Color Corrected Studio"—is an indication of this process. The third photograph shows the room after it has been painted. "Color Corrected Studio" is a game with the mediums of photography and painting. The work can be described as both a work of photography and a painting. At one stage a photograph acts as a support for paint, and at another it documents real painting on the studio walls. An interplay of painting and photography in which each makes mutual reference to the other. This creates various levels of reality that focus our gaze on the distinction between the real world and its technical reproduction—a subject that is also relevant in our digital age.