Jo Baer: A Painter Who Redefined Artistic Boundaries

Jo Baer, the trailblazing painter celebrated for her evolution from Minimalist abstraction to “radical figuration,” has passed away at 95. Her transformative career spanned decades, challenging artistic norms and establishing her as a pioneering force in the male-dominated art world.

Born in Seattle, Washington, in 1929 as Josephine Gail Kleinberg, Baer began her journey studying biology at the University of Washington. Encouraged by her mother to pursue art, she explored painting and drawing alongside her academic work. Later, she completed a graduate degree in psychology from New York’s New School for Social Research.

In 1960, Baer relocated to New York, where her full-time focus on painting and drawing positioned her as a key figure in the Minimalist movement.

Baer’s 1960s work showcased black-and-white hard-edge paintings that emphasized form, color, and spatial relationships. She gained acclaim for her geometric precision and restraint, exhibiting alongside figures like Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt. Her work was featured in Documenta 4 (1968) and received a retrospective at the Whitney Museum in 1975.

The Shift to “Radical Figuration”

In 1975, Baer left New York for Europe, seeking artistic freedom and distancing herself from the commercial art scene. By 1983, she declared herself “no longer an abstract artist,” coining the term “radical figuration.” Her new work blurred the lines between abstraction and figuration, incorporating symbols, text, and fragmented imagery.

Baer described her shift as a desire for “more subject matter and meaning.” This evolution solidified her reputation as an artist unafraid to challenge conventions.

Baer’s work is housed in prestigious collections, including the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), MoMA (New York), and the Tate (London). She participated in significant exhibitions, such as the 2017 Whitney Biennial and MoMA’s Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction.

Her final exhibition, Coming Home Late: Jo Baer In the Land of the Giants (2023), at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, celebrated her enduring creativity.