John Baldessari, "Throwing three balls in the air to get a straight line (best of thirty-six attempts)", 1973

It is one of a few only photographic works and beautifully visualizes the artists experimental approach to conceptual art, also in relation to his teachings at CalArts Institute in California until 1986.

A copy of this limited edition is part of numerous institutional collections, such as the Princeton Universitiy Art Museum, the Walker Art Center & the SFMOMA.

"In his 1973 series Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line (Best of Thirty-Six Attempts), John Baldessari brought his impish wit to this modernist turn. He threw three balls in the air in hopes that a snapshot might catch them aloft and aligned. Through the magic of photography, gravity was defeated, and the balls never had to come down. Although he playfully inserted his arm or his finger in other works, in Throwing Three Balls he kept himself out of the frame. Well, not quite: his balls were in the frame, and the playful reference they make both to his surname and to masculine anatomy is crucial. Throwing Three Balls spoofs the swagger of the Pollock myth of a man laying himself bare through his struggle with the elements. Whereas Pollock orbited his canvases on the floor with all the gravitas of a seminal creator, Baldessari sent his tiny planets skyward with a playful toss." From Aperture issue 221, “Performance.”