Modernt & samtida
Till katalogen
To be sold at Uppsala Auktionskammare’s Important Sale: Modern & Contemporary 19-20 May 2021
Lot 711 Donald Baechler (USA born 1956). ”Untitled (Red Flower)”. Signed with monogram and dated DB 96 on the reverse. Numbered #DB.1282- on the reverse. Acrylic and fabric collage on canvas, 137 x 244 cm.
300.000 – 400.000 SEK
€ 30.000 – 40.000
Christie’s New York, 8 May 2000, lot 220.
Donald Baechler collects images, photographs, various items and everyday objects. His archive comprising of years of gathering is his never-ending source of inspiration in which his creative process commences. When creating his artworks, Baechler uses a variety of different techniques, an innovation that he has become well known for. By attaching different layers of images; drawn, printed, collaged, stamped, silk-screened or painted, he is fusing the pictorial elements into a unity. His technical expertise is combined with his simplified motifs that he is very often returning to, making them a central part of his artistry. Like his trees, ice cream cones, beach balls, birds, the characteristic narrative figures with sharp contours and the flowers, with a fondness of especially the roses. Donald Baechler’s artworks are the result of a process, creating what he calls an ”illusion of history”.
The American Donald Baechler was born on November 22, 1956 in Hartford, Connecticut. His family encouraged his well-noted talent in early years, which led him to studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore in the mid 1970s. After that he continued to New York’s Cooper Union, followed by studies in Frankfurt am Main, Germany at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künset Städelschule. In New York Baechler befriended Tony Shafrazi who in the year of 1979 founded a groundbreaking downtown gallery, gathering artists inspired by, or included in, the graffiti community like Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kenny Sharf. Ever since the 80s, Baechler has been part of the Neo-Expressionist and Pop Art movements in New York where he still lives today.
Baechler himself cites Cy Twombly and Giotto as his primary influences but his works are also an evolved echo of artists like Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Liechtenstein with references to Art Brut. He finds inspiration in the classic, contemporary and folklore art, he explores cultural symbols with references to the pop-art tradition but also coveys a feeling of a memory in each work. Today, the works of Baechler are represented in many of the most important institutional collections of the world, among these can be mentioned The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.