For the record: An earlier version of this article misstated the day Baldessari died. It was Thursday, not Saturday.

In 1970, Los Angeles artist John Baldessari was ready to take his work in a new direction, so he gathered up paintings he made between 1953 and 1966, brought them to a mortuary and had them cremated — the remains laid to rest in an urn for what would eventually be called “Cremation Project.”

Even in the act of destruction, Baldessari was a man of creation.