As we unpack the art history books, Alice Baber is frequently described as an abstract artist, her New York Times' obituary described her work as lyrically abstract. Yes, she is an abstract artist, however instead, she should be noted as an abstract artist that invented blip art, where she worked with multiple ovoid shapes.
Her work is like looking through a kaleidoscope where the angled mirrored walls reflect the colored glass elements into patterns of light and color. As in the example below, she deploys blips of colors on the canvas; lemon yellow, cherry red, Tiffany aqua and spots of taupe, all laying on a bed of white. Some of the overlapping colors built up into intense hues. The sizes of the blips vary and the transparency of the colors builds into swirls around empty areas.  |
"Steps to the Fountain in the Secret Garden"Acrylic on CanvasApproximate Size: 18" X 42"
Who's Who in American Art, states that Baber was born in Charleston, Ill., studied art at Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Mo., and Indiana University in Bloomington. She went to New York in 1951 and lived in both New York and Paris from 1959 to 1968. Her marriage to the famed painter Paul Jenkins ended in divorce. She was represent by the noted A.M. Sachs Gallery in New York City for many years.
Her work is in numerous permanent collections, including; the Guggenheim, Whitney, Metropolitan, and the Museum of Modern Art. Additionally, East Hampton, NY is home to the Alice Baber Memorial Art Library.
Painting Signature with Copyright
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This article is dedicated to my Japanese (nihongo) Sensei, Atsuko Kuwana, who helped me learn to speak Japanese. Collectors come in all varieties, some plan their collections, others start by chance. I saw my first kokeshi（こけし） wooden doll in 2005 while participating in a grassroutes exchange program between the U.S. and Japan. I was staying with a family near Nagoya and the couple’s young daughter had one. Years later when I was named a Mike Mansfield Fellow from the U.S. government to the Japanese government, and was living in Japan, I would see them frequently at flea markets and souvenir shops next to the natural hot spring resorts in the area known as Tohoku. Before leaving for Japan, I studied all things Japanese at the George Shultz Foreign Service Institute (FSI), including a professor that covered domestic and family life and some short statements on kokeshi. After arriving in Japan, the National Personnel Authority ( jinjiin ) was responsible for...
Wonderful.
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