John Baldessari is regarded as a leading figure in American concept art and worked extensively with words and text. In one of his works from 1971, he filmed himself when he wrote line after line with the words "I will not do any more boring art". That work came about after he became so disillusioned by his earlier, painted works that he cremated them into a work called The Cremation Project.
John Baldessari was more interested in the ideas behind the art than the craft.
"I think, perhaps too optimistically, that art is a language in itself, and that people everywhere can understand it," he told The Guardian 2017.
Although his attitude that "art cannot be taught", John Baldessari worked for long periods as a teacher at both the California insitute of the arts and the University of California.
In March this year, a large retrospective opens with him at the Moderna museet in Stockholm.
John Baldessari turned 88 years old.