Alice Baber
Artist’s Statement
Her art reflects, but defies "various stylistic trends" and is "imbued with undulating, sensuous movement, and...pure, translucent colours.
Biography
Alice Baber (August 22, 1928 – October 2, 1982) was an American abstract expressionist painter who worked in oil and watercolor. She was educated in the United States and in the 1950s and 1960s she studied and lived in Paris. She also travelled around the world. Baber, a feminist, organized exhibits of women artists' work.
Baber chose to study art when she attended Lindenwood College for Women in Missouri, where she spent two years before transferring to Indiana University. At Indiana University, she studied under the figurative expressionist, Alton Pickens. She received her Master of Arts in 1951 and then began to travel through Europe. She studied briefly at the École des Beaux-Arts and lived in Paris in the late 1950s and 1960s. During her travels in Europe, she made a living through her writing and was the art editor of McCall's.
Baber began her career working primarily in oils, but began experimenting with watercolour paints in the 1950s. Her experimentation with watercolour initiated a shift in style for Baber as she went from painting still life to creating more abstracted works. Her abstract works focus on colour and form with shapes such as the circle being a common motif. Baber was well known for her use of light and colour holding several exhibitions devoted to these themes.
In 1958, Baber had her first solo show in New York at March Gallery where she was a member. In that same year, she was also granted a studio residency at the Yaddo Art Colony. During this time, she began to develop her unique explorations of colour that derive from the "infinite range of possibilities" for exploring colour and light within the form of the circle. She told Brian Jones that she was looking for a "way to get the light moving across the whole thing" in Battle of the Oranges. This creative inspiration became fundamental to her artistic approach.
In 1959, she showed paintings throughout Europe, including the first "Jeune Biennale" of the American Cultural Centre in Paris.
Her early life as a "nomad" may have influenced her somewhat: she began to divide her years by living in France for six months every year for a period of time.
Awards
The Alice Baber Memorial Art Library in East Hampton, New York and the Baber Midwest Modern Art Collection of the Greater Lafayette Museum of Art in Indiana are both named in her honour.
Numerous museums around the world and major galleries in the United States own her works, including the Guggenheim, Whitney, Metropolitan, the Museum of Modern Art and the Georgia Museum of Art. She is also widely collected by private, corporate and university collections.
Exhibitions
In 1975, Baber curated the exhibition "Colour, Light and Image". An international exhibition of 125 women artists in celebration of the United Nations' International Women's Year. The show was held at the Women's Interart Center in New York City
Showing the single artwork
