Larsen Idealog

Yikes! “Exhibiting Paintings” exhibits typos

I love John Baldessari’s art. What writer wouldn’t? Baldessari (or, more specifically, a sign painter directed by Baldessari) puts unadorned words on canvas and, voilà, they become art.

But I’m troubled: Baldessari’s “Exhibiting Paintings,” which I admired in Hirshhorn earlier this year, exhibits a typo, a comma error, and a hyphenation error. All of them painted in acrylic on canvas and displayed for thousands of art lovers to see. Yikes. Am I the only one who’s noticed?

Here’s the text:

Almost every painter arrives at the stage when he would like to exhibit his work. It is a good idea to have your painting shown with those of others; it gives you a fresh perspective, because it is surprising how different your pictures look on the wall surrounded by paintings of other artists. Sometimes you are agreeably surprised when your painting holds it’s own in comparison. At other times the painting that seemed so colorful and strong in your studio looks drab and weak alongside other pictures.

I’m certain you spotted the typo. It’s the “it’s.” Baldessari — or, perhaps more charitably, his sign painter — has confused the contraction “it’s” with the possessive “its” in the third sentence. Uncorrected, his sentence reads as follows: “Sometimes you are agreeably surprised when your painting holds it is own in comparison.”

As typos go, I’d have to label this offense a felony, rather than a misdemeanor. It’s so permanent and bold and, well, on display, unlike, say, a typo on a website which can be corrected within seconds.

You’d think during the year it took to create the piece (1967-68), someone might have consulted Strunk and White. Unfortunately, the Apostrophe Protection Society wasn’t founded until 2001. And Eats, Shoots & Leaves:The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation wasn’t published until 2003.

Then again, anyone have any beige paint? Heck, get the Hirshhorn curator to call the restoration department and have them cover up the offending apostrophe. Or call in another sign painter. Making the change won’t affect the inter-letter spacing. In fact, upon close inspection, it looks as though Baldessari (oops, I mean his sign painter) may have added the apostrophe after he painted the work of art. Can’t you see him hesitating, brush in hand?

I think removing the offending apostrophe could actually be an interesting art event. Imagine all the art-loving grammarians in attendance! Lynne Truss could be a celebrity guest. And Baldessari could oversee the sign painter’s correction, creating art, once again.

Let’s return to the comma error and the incorrect hy-phena-tion. The comma error occurs before “because” in the second sentence. Unfortunately, removing the extraneous comma will create too much space in the middle of the painting.

Stet.

What about the incorrect hypenation in “perspect-ive.” Correcting that would ruin the left-justified margin. Can’t you just see the “t” hanging out there all by itself?

Why would Baldessari (or, once again, that invisible sign painter) need to paint a hypen anyway? If he (I’m having trouble with pronoun reference here) had simply moved “perspective” down to the next line (picture this text as a Word doc), then the next hyphenated word — “surround-ing” — could also appear unhyphenated.

With due respect to Baldessari, here’s my rewrite:

Every painter wants to exhibit work. But exhibiting your work can be humbling. Sometimes your work looks good; sometimes it looks drab. You can create art about that.

Sign painters, have at it.

—That’s words on words