b. 1956, United States

Donald Baechler Biography

Donald Baechler made his name in New York in the 1980s showing his work at the legendary Tony Shafrazi Gallery with a group of artists that included Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Basquiat. He is known predominantly for his intensely reworked graphical work and paintings which return frequently to a group of motifs and characters: ice-cream cones, thumbs-up, Disney-esque fawns, as well as more clichéd images from art history-flowers, skulls and globes. Executed in the ancient medium of Gesso, flashe paint on canvas or paper collage, Baechlers' are multi-layered works which speak volumes about the painterly process itself.

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Baechler has often referred to himself as collector, of imagery and references-biographical, art historical, visual ephemera-forming a rich archive in his work over the years. His influences are wide-ranging from Giotto to the abstract expressionists to American folk art and Cy Twombly.

While some of his iconography is recognisably from the world of childhood, and could be said to have a deceptive simplicity, his work, and in particular his approach to his work, is infinitely more complex. The blank surface is the beginning of a journey for Baechler, one that he himself is unsure of-an uncertainty he revels in. As he has said 'One reason I build my surfaces up is because I don't really want to know what the line is going to do. I want this built-in fracture; when I drag the brush along the canvas, I don't want it to be a smooth, easy voyage-I want some problems along the way.' It is these obstacles, and the process of overcoming and reworking them, that provide his work with a palpable surface tension. The often apparent purity of his subject matter is in a sense a misnomer.

Baechler has described himself as a formalist-putting line and form above narrative meaning. But his work has an artistic language of its own, a visual syntax that merits close study. The viewer is invited to excavate each work, layer by layer-a richly rewarding experience.

Baechlers' work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art,New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Centre George Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris among many other notable institutions worldwide.

Text courtesy Reflex Amsterdam.

Donald Baechler
featured artworks

Universe of Use by Donald Baechler contemporary artwork painting
Donald Baechler Universe of Use, 2016 Gesso, Flash and paper collage on paper
132.1 x 101.6 cm
Reflex Amsterdam Request Price & Availability
The Slab and the Song by Donald Baechler contemporary artwork painting
Donald Baechler The Slab and the Song, 2015 Gesso, Flashe and paper collage on paper
116.8 x 91.4 cm
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Untitled by Donald Baechler contemporary artwork drawing
Donald Baechler Untitled, 2016 Graphite on white archival bond
27.9 x 21.6 cm
Reflex Amsterdam Request Price & Availability
Untitled by Donald Baechler contemporary artwork drawing
Donald Baechler Untitled, 2016 Graphite on white archival bond
27.9 x 21.6 cm
Reflex Amsterdam Request Price & Availability
The Opinion of Seclusion (Ring) by Donald Baechler contemporary artwork mixed media
Donald Baechler The Opinion of Seclusion (Ring), 2008 Gesso, Flashe, and paper collage on paper
133 x 101.5 cm
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Reflex Amsterdam
Sit Scent (Large) by Donald Baechler contemporary artwork mixed media
Donald Baechler Sit Scent (Large), 2016 Gesso, Flashe and paper collage on paper
132.1 x 101.6 cm
Reflex Amsterdam Request Price & Availability
Skull by Donald Baechler contemporary artwork mixed media
Donald Baechler Skull, 2016 Gesso, Flashe, graphite and paper collage on paper
68.6 x 53.3 cm
Reflex Amsterdam Request Price & Availability
Flower Pot by Donald Baechler contemporary artwork mixed media
Donald Baechler Flower Pot, 2009 Gesso, flashe and paper collage on paper
133 x 101.5 cm
Reflex Amsterdam Request Price & Availability

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