Up in the Air

John Baldessari, "Throwing Three Balls In The Air To Get A Straight Line (Best Of Thirty-Six Attempts)," 1973

Look up. The blast of blue grabs and holds the eye, until the balls in the air direct us to the caption. The balls are almost a line of text themselves, hovering horizontally in a space with no ground. They pair beautifully with the verticality of the messier pair of trees. The simple contrasts of color, number, shape, and line are perfectly balanced: utterly still and clearly in...