Jo Baer
26 Apr - 22 Jun 2008
JO BAER
April 26 – June 22, 2008
Grafisches Kabinett
Jo Baer is seen as one of the pioneers of minimalism. Her early work from the late 1950s was based on a characteristic “hard-edge” style. Her reductive paintings were often done in series of large and small squares or vertical and horizontal rectangles, with the main emphasis on the contours and enclosing borders. From the mid-1960s Jo Baer expanded her artistic repertoire with horizontal or vertical diptych and triptych groupings, and also with highlighted wraparound paintings using diagonals or curves.
Jo Baer's later work shows an increasing rejection of minimalism as a vessel for the “death of painting.” In 1975, directly after her large retrospective show at the Whitney Museum of American Art and at the height of her career, Baer left the pressures and expectations of the New York art market. At first in her new home in Ireland, then in London and Amsterdam, she pursued the idea of “radical figuration” that typified her further work. She turned away from abstraction in favor of a representational style rooted in metaphorical imagery, which since then she has continued to develop in various forms.
In the Secession Jo Baer is presenting two large diptychs that she considers representative for both her “minimalist” and her “representational” periods within the context of her entire oeuvre, and also a painting from 1974/75, which marks the decisive moment of transition and turning point in her artistic development.
JO BAER, born 1929 in Seattle, Washington, lives and workes in Amsterdam.
SOLO SHOWS(selection): 2007 Alexander Gray Gallery, New York; 2002 Dia Center for the Arts, New York; 2001 Flush, Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam; Paintings, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles; 1999 Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam; 1995 Paula Cooper Gallery, New York; 1993 Paley/Levy Gallery, Moore College, Philadelphia; Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterloo; 1990 Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam; 1989 Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago; 1988 Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam; 1986 Paintings from the past decade 1975-1985, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.
GROUP SHWOS (selection): 2007 High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 1967-1975, American U Museum, Katzen Arts Center, WDC; Das Kapital: Blue Chips & Masterpieces, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt a. M.; 2006 Selected Recent Acquisitions + The Van Deventer Bequest, Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterloo; America/Americas: Modern and Contemporary Art of the Americas, Blanton Museum of Art, Texas at Austin; High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 1967-1975, Weatherspoon Art Museum, U of N Carolina, Greensboro; Plane/Figure: Amerikanische Kunst aus Schweizer Sammlungen, Kunstmuseum Winterthur; 2005 Drawing from the Modern, 1945-1975, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Black and White and a Little Bit of Color, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnheim; Some Painting, Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam; 50 Jahre/Years Documenta: 1955-2005, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel; 2004 The Summer of 2003, Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam; Primary Matters: the Minimalist Sensibility, 1959 to the Present, SFMOMA, San Francisco.
The exhibitions are realized through support of:
Erste Bank – Partner of the Secession
Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur
Wien Kultur
Friends of the Secession
April 26 – June 22, 2008
Grafisches Kabinett
Jo Baer is seen as one of the pioneers of minimalism. Her early work from the late 1950s was based on a characteristic “hard-edge” style. Her reductive paintings were often done in series of large and small squares or vertical and horizontal rectangles, with the main emphasis on the contours and enclosing borders. From the mid-1960s Jo Baer expanded her artistic repertoire with horizontal or vertical diptych and triptych groupings, and also with highlighted wraparound paintings using diagonals or curves.
Jo Baer's later work shows an increasing rejection of minimalism as a vessel for the “death of painting.” In 1975, directly after her large retrospective show at the Whitney Museum of American Art and at the height of her career, Baer left the pressures and expectations of the New York art market. At first in her new home in Ireland, then in London and Amsterdam, she pursued the idea of “radical figuration” that typified her further work. She turned away from abstraction in favor of a representational style rooted in metaphorical imagery, which since then she has continued to develop in various forms.
In the Secession Jo Baer is presenting two large diptychs that she considers representative for both her “minimalist” and her “representational” periods within the context of her entire oeuvre, and also a painting from 1974/75, which marks the decisive moment of transition and turning point in her artistic development.
JO BAER, born 1929 in Seattle, Washington, lives and workes in Amsterdam.
SOLO SHOWS(selection): 2007 Alexander Gray Gallery, New York; 2002 Dia Center for the Arts, New York; 2001 Flush, Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam; Paintings, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles; 1999 Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam; 1995 Paula Cooper Gallery, New York; 1993 Paley/Levy Gallery, Moore College, Philadelphia; Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterloo; 1990 Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam; 1989 Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago; 1988 Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam; 1986 Paintings from the past decade 1975-1985, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.
GROUP SHWOS (selection): 2007 High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 1967-1975, American U Museum, Katzen Arts Center, WDC; Das Kapital: Blue Chips & Masterpieces, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt a. M.; 2006 Selected Recent Acquisitions + The Van Deventer Bequest, Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterloo; America/Americas: Modern and Contemporary Art of the Americas, Blanton Museum of Art, Texas at Austin; High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 1967-1975, Weatherspoon Art Museum, U of N Carolina, Greensboro; Plane/Figure: Amerikanische Kunst aus Schweizer Sammlungen, Kunstmuseum Winterthur; 2005 Drawing from the Modern, 1945-1975, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Black and White and a Little Bit of Color, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnheim; Some Painting, Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam; 50 Jahre/Years Documenta: 1955-2005, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel; 2004 The Summer of 2003, Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam; Primary Matters: the Minimalist Sensibility, 1959 to the Present, SFMOMA, San Francisco.
The exhibitions are realized through support of:
Erste Bank – Partner of the Secession
Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur
Wien Kultur
Friends of the Secession