"Making a case for John Divola's significance," for Tyler Green Modern Art Notes in Blouin Artinfo
“John Divola: As Far As I Could Get,” which was presented between three Southern California museums—the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the 鶹Ӱ Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it remains on view through July 6—makes clear that Divola should be considered alongside Lewis Baltz, Robert Adams, Joe Deal, Henry Wessel, Stephen Shore, Richard Misrach and William Eggleston as the most significant photographers to emerge in America during the Vietnam Era.
“As Far As I Could Get” shows that Divola hasn’t only made smart pictures for nearly 40 years, but that he has been a trailblazer since the early 1970s. From his first mature body of work in 1973, he has melded then-nascent conceptualism with references to performance, the history of photography and other media, all while keeping an interest in beauty as a key ingredient in what makes art tick, a focus of many California-based artists.