WattsOS
IT
In the Land of the Giants (Spirals and Stars)
2012 · Oil on canvas
Overall (irregular): 58 1/2 × 60 in. (148.6 × 152.4 cm)
Whitney Museum of American Art
WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture
Jo Baer
1929–2025
PaintingContemporaryFigurationMinimalism
Representation
None documented
0
Institutional Exhibitions
5
Works in Collection
80
Assets Indexed
19
Authority-backed Facts
0
Publications Referenced
80%
Profile Completeness
Cultural Positioning
Movements
- • Contemporary
- • Figuration
- • Minimalism
Related Artists
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About
Why this artist matters now
Jo Baer was an American painter who moved from geometric abstraction to what she called 'radical figuration,' layering images, symbols, and text in non-narrative compositions. Her early minimalist work, shown at Fischbach Gallery in New York during the mid-1960s, established her as a rigorous abstractionist before she fundamentally shifted her practice in the mid-1970s. Her later paintings integrated figural and linguistic elements into densely compressed visual fields, refusing easy legibility or symbolic closure. Baer worked between Seattle and Amsterdam until her death in 2025.
Source: Paula Cooper · Trust score: 100% · Updated 2mo ago
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Taste overlap and adjacency
Movement
Contemporary
Medium
Painting
Related Artists
12 in graph
Institutional
Museum Collections
Canonical record
Artworks (5)
Record
Images
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Adjacent in the graph
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Record
Movements and affiliations
Institutional
Representation & Collections
In collection
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
In collection
Art Institute of Chicago
In collection
Tate
In collection
Whitney Museum of American Art
Market
Auction sale history
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Background
Education
The New School
Visual Arts
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Exhibitions and timeline
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