Alice Baber Paintings
American, 1928-1982
Abstract painter, lithographer and feminist, Alice Baber is recognized for her use of luminous, abstract shapes, particularly in stained canvases filled with transparent, radiant color. For this reason, she is often compared with her contemporary, Helen Frankenthaler. Baber's lyrical compositions often consist of overlapping floating round or ovoid shapes. Born in 1928 in Charleston, Illinois, the artist was dogged by ill-health as a child, forced to spend her winters in Florida to escape the harsh northern winters. Cancer would claim her at the relatively young age of 54.
Baber began her art studies early, as if to compensate for a shortened life, studying drawing as an eight-year-old, and taking a college class by age twelve. She attended Lindenwood College in Missouri for two years, then studied with Alton Pickens, a figurative expressionist painter, at Indiana University in Bloomington. She received her M.A. degree there in 1951.
Travel was an important activity for Baber in the early 1950s, during her marriage from 1964-1970 to abstract painter Paul Jenkins, and throughout her life. In 1951, she studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Fontainebleau, France, and traveled through Europe. In 1958, she began a several-year period of living in Paris. In 1964, Baber and Jenkins visited Japan for their show at the Osaka Pinacotheca Museum.
In the early 1950s, Baber went to live in New York City, where she became a member of a Tenth Street co-operative gallery, the March Gallery, where she had her first one-person show in 1958. She attended the Yaddo Colony in Saratoga Springs, New York for the first time in that year. She was supporting herself by writing, later becoming art editor of McCall's magazine.
Baber visited India twice in the 1970s. In 1974, she had a one-person exhibition in New Delhi, the same year she traveled to Iran for a show in Teheran. From 1976 to 1978, Baber traveled to 13 Latin American countries with the U.S. State Department, exhibiting her work and lecturing on art. In 1979, Baber was an artist-in-residence at the Tamarind Institute print workshop.
Baber organized exhibitions of women artists, including "Color Forum," in 1972 at the University of Texas, in Austin, and "Color, Light, and Image," in 1975 in New York City at the Women's Interart Center, a show of artists from around the world in recognition of the United Nations International Women's Year. Baber wrote an essay for the catalogue of the Texas show.
Baber was a writer and teacher, as well as an artist, serving as artist-in-residence in Albuquerque at the University of New Mexico's Tamarind Institute lithography workshop. She taught painting at the New School, New York City; the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of California, Berkeley. Her stain paintings, different from but related to those of Paul Jenkins, explored both variations of a single color and rich combinations of multiple colors.
to
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
787
690
651
578
1
1
Artist: Alice Baber
"Rainforest to Palenque, Mexico" Alice Baber, Color Field, Female Abstract
By Alice Baber
Located in New York, NY
Alice Baber
Rainforest to Palenque, Mexico, 1975
Signed upper right; signed, titled and dated on the overlap
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 inches
Provenance:
Steven Wolf Fine Arts, San Fran...
Category
1970s Color-Field Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Related Items
1960s Paul Feeley School Color Field Painting
Located in New York, NY
School of Paul Feeley
Untitled, c. 1960s
Oil on canvas
20 x 59 5/8 in.
Signed lower right
Primarily a painter, Paul Feeley (American, 1910 - 1966) favored canvases with simple geome...
Category
1970s Color-Field Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Contemporary Abstract Geometric Colour Field Oil on Canvas, ' Intermezzo 7'
Located in Cotignac, FR
A contemporary abstract geometric colour field landscape in oil on canvas board by Dutch artist Bernadette Van Baarsen. Signed bottom left and presented i...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Color-Field Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
H 14.57 in W 14.57 in D 2.37 in
Contemporary Abstract Colorfield Landscape in Cream & Green
By Michael Pauker
Located in Soquel, CA
A striking contemporary two-toned colorfield abstract by Bay Area artist Michael Pauker (American, b. 1957). A large neutral textured section in cream sits atop a wavy abstraction in...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Color-Field Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
H 40 in W 30 in D 1 in
Arapahoe XII
By Ludwig Sander
Located in Austin, TX
Waterline Fine Art, Austin, TX is pleased to present the following work:
Oil on canvas. Signed, titled, dated verso.
40 x 44 in.
41.5 x 45.5 in. (framed)
Custom framed in a natura...
Category
1970s Color-Field Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Orange Edge
Located in Austin, TX
Waterline Fine Art, Austin, TX is pleased to present the following work:
Oil on canvas. Signed, titled, and dated verso.
40.25 x 34 in.
41.5 x 35.5 in. (framed)
Custom framed in a solid maple floater, with a matte white finish.
Provenance
The Betty Parsons Gallery, New York
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Thomas Phelps Stokes...
Category
1960s Color-Field Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Orange Composition-Large abstract Patagonia landscape, oil contemporary painting
By Maria Jose Concha
Located in Dallas, TX
Maria Jose Concha lived for 7 years in the Chilean Patagonia, the world’s southernmost landscape, an experience, which transformed her work and becomes the focus of her expressive pa...
Category
2010s Color-Field Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Cotton Canvas, Oil
H 39.38 in W 78.75 in D 1.58 in
Paisaje Gris y Blanco, elegant abstract contemporary landscape, oil painting
By Maria Jose Concha
Located in Dallas, TX
Maria Jose Concha lived for 7 years in the Chilean Patagonia, the world’s southernmost landscape, an experience, which transformed her work and becomes the focus of her expressive pa...
Category
2010s Color-Field Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Cotton Canvas, Oil
Red Range
By Larry Zox
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Larry Zox (1937-2006) was a central figure in the evolution of American abstraction. He played an essential role in the emergence of Color Field during the 1960s and 1970s, eventuall...
Category
1970s Color-Field Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic
Twelfth Night Blue, Contemporary Color Field painting
By Carl Holty
Located in Greenwich, CT
Conceived of as one half of a diptych, together with Twelfth Night Red, the title of this painting suggest a reference to William Shakespeare’s play Twel...
Category
Late 20th Century Color-Field Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Fire (9.19.83)
By Mala Breuer
Located in Phoenix, AZ
oil and wax on canvas
1927 - 2017
Mala Breuer grew up attending classes in painting and drawing from a young age at the California College of Arts and Crafts. After high school she...
Category
1980s Color-Field Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wax, Oil
'Vapor' by Katheryn Holt - Very Large Bright Orange Contemporary Abstract Art
Located in Carmel, CA
Katheryn Holt (American, born 1951)
"Vapor," 2022
Oil paint, Canvas, Stretcher bars
The piece is signed on the back of the canvas.
Katheryn Holt paints memory. Her abstract painting...
Category
2010s Color-Field Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars
H 60 in W 84 in D 1.5 in
12.17.95
By Mala Breuer
Located in Phoenix, AZ
oil and wax on canvas
1927 - 2017
Mala Breuer grew up attending classes in painting and drawing from a young age at the California College of Arts and Crafts. After high school sh...
Category
1990s Color-Field Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wax, Oil
Previously Available Items
LAVENDAR SWEEP
By Alice Baber
Located in Three Oaks, MI
Abstract painter, lithographer and feminist, Alice Baber specialized in paintings of ovals, circles and free-forms that extolled the radiance of color. Her...
Category
1970s Color-Field Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Bridge of the Piper for Virgo
By Alice Baber
Located in Summit, NJ
Gorgeous large scale abstract by Alice Baber. The piece came out of designer Arnold Scaasi’s Palm Beach estate. Scaasi was known to have an important and f...
Category
1970s Abstract Expressionist Alice Baber Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Alice Baber paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Alice Baber paintings available for sale on 1stDibs.