Photograph, black and white, on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Black Dice
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-baldessari-687" aria-label="More by John Baldessari" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">John Baldessari</a>
Purchased 1983
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
bed
bedroom
bedspread
caption
chair
Chase, James Hadley, ‘No Orchids for Miss Blandish’
cinema
clothing and personal items
crouching
cushion
domestic
electrical appliances
emotions, concepts and ideas
film, music and ballet
film: Clowes, StJ., ‘Black Dice’/‘No Orchids for Miss Blandish’
fine arts and music
formal qualities
furnishings
gun, handgun
heating and lighting
hiding
inscriptions
interiors
leisure and pastimes
light / lamp
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
man
menace
music and entertainment
objects
people
photographic
picture
reading
reclining
recreational activities
standing
suit
symbols and personifications
telephone
universal concepts
weapons
woman
paper print photograph black white
[no title]
image: 178 × 222 mm
Purchased 1983
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/baldessari-no-title-p07853" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07853</span></a> [from] <b>Black Dice</b> 1982 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/baldessari-no-title-p07808" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07808</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/baldessari-no-title-p07816" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07816</span></a>; <span>P07853</span>; complete]
<br/>
<br/>Nine etchings with squatint, each 6 3/8 × 8 (162 × 203) on Velin Arches paper 16 1/2 × 19 3/4 (420 × 502), printed by Peter Kneubühler, Zurich, and one black and white photograph 8 × 9 1/4 (203 × 235). The portfolio published by Peter Blum Editions, Zurich and New York
<br/>Each inscribed ‘BALDESSARI’ b.r. and ‘31/35’; P 07853 not inscribed
<br/>Purchased from Peter Blum Editions (Grant-in-Aid) 1983
<br/>
<br/>‘Black Dice’ is a set of nine <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etchings</span></a> intended to be framed separately but shown together arranged in three rows of three. These <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> are accompanied by a black and white <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a>, a reproduction of a National Screen Service Corporation publicity still from the film of the same title made in 1948. The film was made in Britain and originally called No Orchids for Miss Blandish, from the story of that name by James Hadley Chase. The photograph, a piece of artificial action artificially stilled for the camera, is typical of the kind of source material Baldessari uses. He frequently uses ‘found’ photographs, or shots taken at random or by others to his instructions and puts them together according to a system of his own unrelated to their meaning or to any <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/n/narrative" title="Glossary definition for 'Narrative'"><span>narrative</span></a>. The format of ‘Black Dice’ is related to the kind of storyboards made for the preliminary planning of a film but it is made up of nine equal divisions of the original photograph. Baldessari had the sections blown up to the size of etching plate he planned to use, then drew over the photo-etched images using a mixture of soft-ground etching, sugar-lift and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/aquatint" title="Glossary definition for 'Aquatint'"><span>aquatint</span></a>, introducing colour in an arbitrary way. He left wide borders on the prints so that, though their arrangement implies ‘piecing together’, it also implies unseen areas linking them. The image can still be deciphered though the work on the plates has disguised the image of the source photograph, which now takes on the role of a key to the work itself. It shows, in banal visual terms, a moment of ominous significance. It is an awkward <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> in which the figures are placed at the edges of the frame, a satin bed cover with a gown hung over it and a patterned cushion beyond dominating the centre of the image. A girl sits in bed evidently feigning ‘normality’ in a most unnatural way; a man stands at the left, motionless but evidently posing a threat of some kind, and another man holding a gun hides - though evidently is not hidden - at the right. Baldessari's isolation and transformation of the compositional elements, separated out by his division of the photograph, refer to the use of one visual language as a code for another, rather as the still refers to the film itself, in which all is obviously made clear in the usual language of mystery narratives.
<br/>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i>, London 1986
<br/>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-13T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults bed bedroom bedspread caption chair Chase, James Hadley, ‘No Orchids for Miss Blandish’ cinema clothing and personal items crouching cushion domestic electrical appliances emotions, concepts and ideas film: Clowes, StJ., ‘Black Dice’/‘No Orchids for Miss Blandish’ film, music and ballet fine arts and music formal qualities furnishings gun, handgun heating and lighting hiding inscriptions interiors leisure and pastimes light / lamp literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) man menace music and entertainment objects people photographic picture reading reclining recreational activities standing suit symbols and personifications telephone universal concepts weapons woman