Detail

Jo Baer came onto the art scene in the US in the 1960s at exactly the time that mMinimal aArt, with its homage to sober, industrially-produced materials, was reachinges its climax. Artists such as Robert Morris or Donald Judd claimed: “Painting has become ossified, a matter of the past and finished.”. In total contrast to this, Jo Baer remained true to painting and never gave it up in favour of sculpture, as many others did. On the contrary, by eliminating hierarchies of forms and colours wherever possible, she attempted to open up the pictorial form to questions of perception. Was it possible, Baer asked in these canvases, to create a vital painting that did not depend in any way on illusion, content, or even any sign of quality, a painting that was about its own architecture and, its actual physical structure, and yet did not cross the line into sculpture? In the 1970s, Baer began a series of small, elongated pictures that have an unusual depth for paintings on canvas. They usually hang just above the floor and confound our preconceived ideas about what constitutes the correct way to hang a picture on athe wall. Ribbon-like forms painted in toned colours run along the edges. But tThese do not emphasizse the edges and margins though, but cover them up or obscure them instead. The centere of the canvas has the light- colour of a neutral background but this does not imply a “mysterious” emptiness. It is probable that the colours and even some of the shapes were inspired by the orchids that Baer was then growing and had become obsessed with, and she used the flowers' scientific names, such as Tenebrosa, as titles for the paintings.