John Baker

"The Ego and the Id", Contemporary Portrait, Red, Collage, Acrylic Painting

2011

John Baker’s “I’ve Known Him for a Long Time” is an acrylic painting on canvas with collage 16 x 12 inches in beige, ochre and dark grey. The two halves represent not so much a perso...

John Baker’s “The Ego and the Mechanism’s of Defense” is an acrylic painting on canvas with collage 20 x 16 inches in beige, blues, greens and ochres. The painting borrows its title from Anna Freud...

John Baker’s “Layers of the Self” is an acrylic painting on canvas with collage 32 x 20 inches in greys, blacks and whites, with flesh tones. Although quite young, the gentleman has ...

John Baker’s “AI Takes Over” is a 20 x 16 x 1.5 inch acrylic painting on canvas with collage in greys, blacks, browns and pinks. The impending excessive reliance on AI (for informati...

A large, unique pencil drawing and collage by Tomas Lasansky from circa 1990. A portrait of the Apache leader who fought against Mexico in the historic Apache wars. Signed in lower r...

This work was one of Long’s earliest compositions as an artist. Even earlier in his artistic career, Long was interested in exploring the intersection of various media, branching out into new innovative spaces. This work demonstrates the technique and forms at play that have since germinated into Long’s signature style. Bert L. Long Jr., was self-taught artist, was born in 1940 in Texas, grew up the Houston’s historic Fifth Ward and received his formal education from UCLA. Following a career as a successful master chef, Long decided to devote himself entirely to art in the late 1970’s. He began to explore folk art and assemblage to create a unique body of work, attracting the attention of Jim Harithas, then Director of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and artists John Alexander, Salvatore Scarpitta and James Surls. His life spanned an era of radical change in the American social climate, the influence of which can be seen clearly in his work. Long’s paintings and sculptures incorporate a high level of skill and sophisticated knowledge of art history, along with complex philosophical and social issues.  Long describes the philosophy behind his work as "a quest to help people diagnose their inner self," believing his art to be "the vehicle to help facilitate the process." “As artists we have the obligation to provide the world with art which communicates as truth. I believe that art has the power to heal our souls of their afflictions. I try to create art which helps to diagnose the prevalent conditions within our societies, hopefully providing an insightfulness which will help us all become brothers and sisters united in equality and compassion”                                       - Bert L. Long, Jr. The late Peter Marzio, former Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, said of Bert Long during the major retrospective of Long’s work at the museum: “Bert Long does not avert his gaze from that which is painful, but as [his artworks] testify, he also brings a spirit of joy and redemption to his art. We can all learn from this great artist.” Over Long’s 33-year career as a painter, sculptor, and photographer, he had several solo exhibitions at respected museums and was awarded many significant awards including the National Endowment for the Arts Grant in 1987 and the prestigious international Prix de Rome fellowship in 1990. Other notable awards of Long’s include the Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts Artist of the Year Award in 2009, the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Emergency Assistance Grant in 1997, the Houston Art League Texas Artist of the Year in 1990, the NEA Visual Artists Fellowship Grant, 1987 and the Bemis Foundation Residency in 1998. His work can be seen in over 100 private and public collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Houston Museum of Fine Art, the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, the El Paso Museum of Art, and the Instituto de Bachillerato in Spain. With a recent solo exhibition at the Houston Museum of African American Culture and an exhibition overseas which is pending featuring his work, plus interest from several national museums, Bert L. Long Jr. continues to be recognized as an important African American artist throughout Texas, nationally and internationally. Bert L. Long, Jr. "Untitled" 1977 Acrylic and Paper Collage on Canvas...

Contemporary Art, Abstract Painting Acrylic on canvas 200x130cm Signed About the artist Enrique Pichardo (Mexico City, 1973) graduated from Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultur...

Red, gray, and white abstract figurative mixed media painting by Houston, TX artist Jim Pirtle. The work depicts a figure of a lady wearing a red and white blouse with a cowboy hat on her head. She sits against a red background with hats and shoes. Unsigned. Framed in a natural wooden frame. Dimensions Without Frame: H 23.5 in x W 19.75 in Artist Biography: Jim Pirtle was born in Houston, TX in 1960. In High School, he was selected "Most Nonconformist." He went to Baylor University in Waco, TX, and received a BA in history but more importantly, was a member of the NoZe Brotherhood. The group was an underground mask-wearing secret society of satirists that through writing, campus interventions, and performance art exposed the hypocrisy of conservative Baptists. After college, he moved to Austin, TX, and got a job as an orderly at the Austin State Hospital. This was a crash course education in the extremes of human behavior. After two years in the locked up insaneness of collecting urine, breaking up fights and mopping up spontaneous miscarriages he jumped to the other extreme, moving back to Houston and becoming a Kindergarten teacher for 10 years ? innocence and hope. During the mid 80's he was becoming an obsessive painter and found the local art community. He moved into an artist warehouse and got his formal art training from Nestor Topchy...