Lucy Baker

I don't understand this site, so please contact me,directly, if you have any questions,or need prices or for availability of work. You can also find me on Facebook,Lucy Baker ,I  live in CT. Thanks, and keep trying!!!

I began years ago ,working with acrylics, with Sam Golden , paint chemist, to develop the first acrylic gels. His purpose was to create what the artists needed, as the needs arose. My first thoughts were a thicker ,clearer paint. Back in the mid 1970's one could only thicken the paint by using things like sand or rocks, or objects that already existed. To get a "clear" paint, I used gloss medium .I began to add glass marbles, pieces of plastic, and broken car windshield glass , then wooden shoes, sandals,a guitar and I worked on plastic(plexiglass , or Perspex) , I wanted transparency AND thickness , both. Sam invented Acrylic gel , in about 1978, I got my first bucket through an artist friend named John Griefen. From there , I came up with many possibilities.As the scale of my art grew to large murals , I also wanted it light , in weight, because gel was heavy. Sam produced many variations on the original gel, now there are some 22 types! I wanted metallic, he'd make metallics, I wanted glitter, he'd make glitter, if I wanted fluorsecent, he'd make fluorescent. And as other artists joined in ,Sam became the favorite paintmaker of all the cutting edge artists, because he was capable of producing the paint you wanted , in very quick time. And early on, my search for unusual supports, grew ,too. I experimented with painting on plastics ,hologrammed, mylar,wooden doors, plywood, canvas, papers of all kinds including metallic posterboards,even astroturf(used for football domes). I began to use spoons, very big , plastic ones, baking equipment , use to make pastries, mustard squeeze bottles, hair coloring bottles, expanding on Pollock's "drip " paintings. Pollock had to go beyond Picasso, I felt ,I had to go beyond Pollock, and he'd covered a lot of territory.in his rather short career, from the first large scale murals, to the end of his life, but he was the man to "beat". Some of my work such as "Life and Death" is partially figurative, and there are many paintings I have not digitalized yet, that combine figurative elements,related more to early Pollock, with abstraction. In some cases some are entirely 2 D while more are 3D, in the years around the early 1980's to 1990's I made some very large mural type paintings which were exhibited in Paris, at Gallery Piltzer, that I began to feel I had reached beyond Pollock , which was my ultimate goal. One has to be challenged, by the artists you feel are at the top of the game. As I looked back to Renaissance artists,I knew the scale was very important, the "drawing" in a painting had to be just right and I wanted to combine those features with the color of The NY School, and Color Field painters, like Olitski, Frankenthaler , Noland and others. And I extracted techniques from every facet of art that I could think of , adding fluorescents, hologrammed glitter , plastic rhinestones(jewels) ,thick and thin textures,high contrasts, and close values, and I just kept combining and combining, in every way I could imagine.

My philosophy on art is simple. "make the best you possibly can ,and make it come alive". What makes the greatest art, is to breathe life into what you make. There are many artists who can draw well, or paint well, and are technically perfect. But if the art has no life, it is dead. My preference is that when a person walks into a room,they cannot help but notice my art.Maybe it is jarring or even annoying , but I want it to draw your attention, and you will know it is mine. I don't make art for decoration, I make it to stay in your mind, and for generations to come.And I try to make it unforgettable. I don't try to compete with what is fashionable, I just try to make the best art I can,and bring it to life.

Lucy Baker
born 1955, Wellesley, Massachusetts

Education
1969-1972 High School, Cambridge School of Weston,Weston, Massachusetts,diploma(majored in silkscreen and woodblock printing).Met Ken Noland (daughters, and son, Cady, Lynn, and Bill Noland were classmates of Baker's ). Met sculptor Sir Anthony Caro at his opening at the Boston Museum at this time.Met Kenworth W.Moffett,and Clement Greenberg at lecture at Wellesley College with friend and now famous author Doug Preston(whose mother also introduced Baker to the work of Jack Bush, Canadian Abstract painter).Met Larry Poons, Robert Motherwell, Darby Bannard,Robert Goodnough at Boston Museum panel with Doug Preston and family at this time).Both events were arranged by Kenworth W. Moffett , the curator at The Boston Museum.
1972-1975 Goddard College,Plainfield, Vermont,graduated with Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)degree in Fine Art, majored in sculpture,graphics(drawing) and painting. Senior exhibition held at the college).Studied with Peter Ruddick-student of Henry Moore,Pat and James Gahagan,students of Hans Hofmann,Paul Cooper(Sculptor)
1976 attended Life Drawing classes with King Coffin (private instruction)at Methodist Church, Wellesley, Massachusetts
1977 Platt Technical School, Milford ,Ct. received Certificate of Welding , and took machine shop classes
1980 attended Emma Lake workshop as a guest of Kenworth Moffett.Darryl Hughto and Susan Roth were also invited artists.Met Canadian artists Dorothy Knowles, Wm Perehudoff,Graham Peacock,Douglas Bentham,Doug Haynes,Otto Rogers,Peter Hide, Don Foulds,among may others ,at this time.

Organizations
1975-1976 member, Wellesley Art Club- classes with King Coffin,participated in exhibitions
1976 member, New England Sculptors association, Wellesley, Massachusetts
1977 member, Milford Art Club, Milford , Connecticut
1979 Founder and President "Boston Painters and Sculptors"a group of 30 artists officially formed and critiqueing each other in their studios by 1981, with Marjorie Minkin,and ran until 1985 with final large scale exhibition at The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, included 78 very large scale works (Baker moved to Connecticut in 1983 but returned to produce this exhibition and video)was instantly a sucess and collectors from Boston and New York purchased many of the artworks,Jon Swan wrote about "The Group" at it was more commonly refered to, in "Art New England Magazine" establishing "The Group" as a major force in Contemporary Art in New England. Some of the visitors to "The Group" were Kenworth W. Moffett(Curator Boston Museum of Fine Arts/Professor at Wellesley College/author of "Jules Olitski""Kenneth Noland"published by Harry Abrams "Fairfield Porter"published by The Boston Museum/Whitney Museum)Moffett also wrote extensively in all of the major art magazines about "Color Field Painting" and Abstraction, later he became Director of The Ft. Lauderdale Museum, then Director of Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver Colorado,and , Clement Greenberg(internationally known art Critic for "The Nation"," Arts International Magazine","Arts Magazine", Sir Anthony Caro,internationally renowned Sculptor and student of Henry Moore,Karen Wilkin,internationally known author and art critic, wrote monographs on Cezanne, Braque,Morandi, David Smith, and Sir Anthony Caro, also writer for "New Criterion" magazine published by Hilton Kramer among many other things she recently curated a show on "Color Field Painting " in Washington,D.C, and Denver, Colorado.Piri Halasz, writer for Time Inc.and author of "At the Mayor's Doorstep".John O'Brien ,Author of "Clement Greenberg, selected writings"was also a regular visitor to "The Group" as were artists Friedel Dzubas,(Color Field Painter),and numerous other artists Steve Brent, Roy Lerner, Irene Neal from Connecticut,Mark Rausch, Scott Bennett,Jerry Webster from Syracuse,(Webster moved to Boston to join this first group) , Mike Williams New York,collectors, Lewis Cabot, Marnie and Arthur Solomon,Lois and Henry Foster,Tony and Janet Goldman,gallery owners Portia Harcus, Tommy Segal and many museum people.
1981 "Boston Painters and Sculptors" met monthly in studios to critique each others work(thru 1985)until Baker and Moffett married and moved to Connecticut in 1983 but Baker continued meeting then began showing with Irene Neal, Steve Brent and Roy Lerner,in Connecticut(during this time Graham Peacock(British born) and Joseph Drapell(Czech born) from Canada also came to visit "The Group" Eventually this group begame the seed for the 2nd group , known as "The New New Painterss" Between 1983 and 1993 Baker and various members of the core of the NNP showed together in many places
1993 Founder of the group the "New New Painters" begins first show, under this name at Galerie Piltzer, Paris, France ,Baker works with Piltzer to organize most of the following 26 European Shows, Korean Show and Artfairs in the US, and Europe where Piltzer represented "The New New Painters. "The New New Painters" have had some 80 shows worldwide since then, including The 69th Regiment Armory, produced and organized by Baker (Kenworth W. Moffett, curator and author of the catalog), the National Gallery of Prague, Czech Republic(all of the NNP are now in the permanent Museum Collection at Prague)with Milan Knizak(director)and TomasVlcek and Natalia Brablcova (curator organized with Baker), Vero Beach Museum (John Henry-then Director), with catalog by Sue Scott,Hotel De Ville, Brussels, Belgium, Curated by Marcel Paquet, internationally known author and philosopher,Flint Museum, Flint, Michigan,The Grand Palais, Paris France, The Musee d'Art Moderne et Contemporaine, Nice , France among many other major locations. The first Paris Gallery where Gerald Piltzer showed the" New New Painters" was on Avenue Matignon,Paris France. This was the first Gallery there since the French Impressionists showed there. Piltzer Gallery was 13,000 sq. ft, only a short walk to the Arc de Triomphe, visible from the front door.


One Person Exhibition
1975 "Lucy Baker- Woman Under the Afluence"( a play on the American saying "under the influence" which means some one is drunk with alcohol, in this case Baker realizing her position in the world at the time, not very many woman could or every tried to make it as an artist, Helen Frankenthaler, Georgia O'Keefe,Lee Krasner, Dorothy Dehner, Barbara Hepworth ,Janet Sobel, Anne Rice Pierera, were among the very few , well known woman artists of the time,and being from a well to do backround, Baker realized she had the advantage and luck of a good education,private schools,being born of an old Bostonian Family, going back to 1630 to Boston's first families,she refered to her" affluent" lifestyle in terms of being"drunk" with it, and using this opportunity to establish herself as an artist,in an artworld hostile to woman artists in the 1970's in the USA.Eventually in the '80's and '90's artists like "The Gorilla Girls" fought to attain fairness in public and private galleries, in time the situation has now become more equal) Pratt Gallery, Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont(bl. and wh. poster available)
1976 "Lucy Baker" French Library, Cambridge School of Weston, Weston , Massachusetts
1980 "Lucy Baker- Abstraction"South Shore Art Center, Cohassett, Massachusetts (bl.& wh. card/reprints)
1981-1984 "Lucy Baker" Waltham Studios,and Artists West, Waltham , Massachusetts
1983 "Lucy Baker"Babson College, Wellesley , Massachusetts (poster/reprints
1987 "Lucy Baker- Human Beings"Shippee Gallery ,57th St ,New York City (the 2nd half of the show , Robert Goodnough -Color Field Painter -was shown in the West Gallery/part of Shippee Gallery with Baker)(color card,and brochure)
2002 "Lucy Baker" Museum of New New Painting, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (color catalog)
2008 "Lucy Baker" Huitai Art Centre, Tianjin, China (color catalog available,color poster)

Selected Group Exhibitions (complete list available on request-over 80 exhibitions worldwide)
2008 Tong You,Beijing , China
2008 "Colour and Ink"Huitai Art Centre, Tianjin, China, with Bill Kort , Irene Neal, Charles Gibbons,Gunther Uecker(Germany) and Chinese Artists
2008 Sam And Adele Golden Foundation, Benefit Auction,Scholarship Fund,New Berlin, New York (color photos,on the Internet at )
2007 "Chinese and American Painting" Tong You Art Gallery,Beijing, China ,with Bill Kort, Irene Neal, Charles Gibbons and Chinese Artists
2007 "Domestic and International Painting Exhibition" ,Tong You Art Gallery, Beijing ,China
2007 "Art Basel/Miami ,Automatic Slim's at the District",sponsored by A.N.E.W. Foundation, Miami Florida
2007 "Sam and Adele Golden Foundation, Benefit Auction,Scholarship Fund, New Berlin, New York
2007 "Aspects of Abstraction" FAB Gallery, University of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,curated by Graham Peacock, with Jack Bush,Bruce, Dunbar,William Perehudoff,John Gittins,Robert Motherwell,Stanley Boxer,Larry Poons,Susan Roth, Terry Keller, Mitchell Smith,Friedel Dzubas,Robert Scott, Bruce Piermarini, Irene Neal,Jonathan Forrest,Marjorie Minkin, Clay Ellis,Roy Lerner, Peter G. Ray,Joseph Drapell, Steve Brent,Jerry Webster,and Doug Haynes. (color brochure)
2003 "New New Painting"Musee du Bas, Riviere Du Loup, Quebec, Canada
2003 A.N.E.W. Foundation for the Arts, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
2003 Elsfar Gallery, Edmonton ,Alberta Canada
2003 "Lucy Baker and Irene Neal" Juten Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2002 "New New Painting"National Gallery of Prague, Czech Republic(curated by Natalie(Sykarova) Brablcova.Color catalog with essays by Kenworth W. Moffett,Milan Knizak(dDirector and Fluxus group member,David Carrier, and Tomas Vlceck
2002 "New New Painters" Galerie d'Art Contemporains, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2001 "9/11 In Honor of Americans" National Gallery of Prague, Czech Republic
2001 "Vibram Show" Milan, Italy
2001 "Inaugural Exhibition"Museum of New New Painters, Toronto , Ontario, Canada
2001 "La Retour du New New Painting" Galerie Anne Lettree', Paris , France
2001 "Les Alliaiges de la Matiere" Espace Blanche,,Brussels, Belgium,curated by Gerson Wilinsky
2000 "Part II The Permanent Collection" National Gallery of Prague, Czech Republic, curated by Milan Knizak(Director,member Fluxus Group),(catalog)
2000 "New New Painters" 69th Regiment Armory, curated by Kenworth W. Moffett(color catalog)
2000 "The End of the World?" National Gallery, Czech Republic, curated by Milan Knizak (color catalog)
2000 "Permanent Collection" Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, Florida
2000 "Past and Present" Loft Artists, 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Stamford, Connecticut
2000 "New New Painters- A viewing" Gelabert Gallery, New York, New York (viewing for Donald Kuspit, author/art critic)
1999 "New New Painting"Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, curated by Ken worth W. Moffett
!999 "The New New Painters" Flint Institute of Art, Flint ,Michigan,curated by John Henry and Sue Scott(color catalog, sold out)
1998 Miami Art Fair, Miami, Florida, represented by Galerie Piltzer,Paris, France
1997 "New New Painting" Griffis Art Center,New London, Connecticut
1997 "New New Painting" Museum of Contemporary Art,Palm Beach, Florida
1997 "New New Painting" Stamford Center for the Arts, Stamford, Connecticut
1997 "New New Painting" York College,Jamaica, New York
1997 "New New Painting" Fine Art 2000, Stamford, Connecticut(color catalog/book by Donald Kuspit and Arlene Raven)
1997 "New New Painting" Robert Vanderleelie Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
1996 "New New Painting" Galerie Piltzer,Paris,France
1995 "New New Painting" Galleryism, Seoul. Korea
1994 "New New Painting" Salander-O'Reilly Gallery/with Galerie Piltzer,New York City, New York
1994 F.I.A.C. Art Fair,Espace Tour Eiffel, Paris France, represented by Galerie Piltzer
1994, "Decouvertes 1994" Port de Versailles, Paris , France with Galerie Piltzer
1994 "Art Frankurt" Frankfurt, Germany,with Galerie Piltzer
1994 "Art New York" Interenational Art Fair, at the Pier, New York City, New York ,with Galerie Piltzer
1994 "Art 94,Chicago" Itnernational Art Fair, Chicago, Illinois, with Galerie Piltzer
1993 "F.I.A.C. Art Fair, Paris, France with Galerie Piltzer
1993 "New New Painters"Galerie Tilly Haderek,Stuttgart ,Germany
1993" New New Painters"Stadtische Galerie,Goppingen, Germany,curated by Werner Meyer,sponsored by Mercedes Benz(color catalog/ with translation)
1993 "New New Painters" Musee d'art Moderne et Contemporain , Nice, France(poster)
1993 Salon D'Art Contemporain de Montrouge,Paris , France
1993 "New New Painters", Musee des Beaux-Arts,Charleroi, Belgium,curated by Marcel Paquet
1993 "Art Cologne '93",Rhinesdide Hills, Kolnmesse, Germany,with Gallery Piltzer
1993 "Art Chicago'93" International Art Fair, Chicago, Illinois,with Gallery Piltzer
1993 "Decouvertes '93" Grand Palais, Paris , France, with Gallery Piltzer
1992 "New New Painting" Galerie Dambier Massett, Paris, France
1992 "New New Painting" Galerie Piltzer, Paris ,France( Hardbound Book/color, by Kenworth W. Moffett and Marcel Paquet)
1990 Camino Real Gallery, Boca Raton ,Florida
1990 "Outside New York" F.A.B. Gallery ,Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
1990 "Stamford Festival of The Arts", Stamford, Connecticut, Piri Halasz, curator
1990 "Arsenic and Old Lace" :A multimedia Juried Exhibition
1990 "The Cutting Edge" Ferguson Library, Stamford, Ct,(Lucy Baker, Steve Brent, Irene Neal and Roy Lerner)
1989 "Outside New York" ,The Works, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
1989 "P.M.W.Gallery" Stamford, Connecticut, curated by Patsy Whitman
1988"Summer '88: New Visions" Sound Shore Gallery, Portchester, New York
1987 "Winter SolsticeVI" Sound Shore Gallery, Portchester, New York
1987 "Fall Invitational, Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
1986 "Thupelo Arts Project, University of Witswatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
1986 "Architechural References" Shippee Gallery, New York, New York
1986"Summer Visions",Soundshore Gallery, Portchester, New York
1986 Mathew Scott Gallery,South Miami, Florida
1986 "The Cutting Edge",Wilton Library, Wilton,Connecticut
1986 The Front Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
1985 "Boston Painters And Sculptors" Federal Reserve Bank, Boston, Massachusetts
1985 "Four Fairfield County Artists",Ferguson Library ,Stamford, Connecticut
1985 "Emerging Women Artists", Sound Shore Art Center, Portchester, New York
1985 The Front Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta,Canada
1984 "Boston Painters And Sculptors",29th Annual South Shore Arts Festival , curated by Lucy Baker


Bibliography(curently being updated in a separate book, of over 200 articles, books, catalogs and reviews, Baker's work has been written about for over 30 years by numerous Internationally knowns authors and art critics.Most recently her paintings(one person show in China,2008) were featured in a Fashion Magazine . Baker's work can be found on numerous Internet sites, and a list of TV shows including her work is also being compiled.






nter, Tianjin,China

Lucy Baker has exhibited in over 80 shows around the world. Most recently in 9 group shows and one solo show in Tianjin,and Beijing ,China.(2008-20011) Her work is in the National Gallery of Prague, Czech Republic,Vero Beach , Museum,Florida, Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton ,Alberta, Canada,Flint Institute of Arts, Flint , Michigan, The Appleton Museum,Florida,among many other museums and galleries. She exhibited in 1992 in Paris , 75 Avenue Champs Elysees, at Galerie Piltzer with her group THE NEW NEW PAINTERS. and continues to exhibit with the group today.There is a Museum of New New Painting in Toronto Canada, where Baker exhibited in a large scale one person show in 2002. 17 of her mural sized and smaller paintings were shown . Kenworth W. Moffett (well known American author,art critic,curator, museum director)wrote the exhibition catalog,Pat Fleischer edited the catalog and took the cover photo, Fleischer was publisher of a Canadian Art Magazine,"Art Focus" Major , large scale murals are on permaneant Exhibition at the National Gallery of Prague, Flint Museum, Flint Michigan, and Vero Museum in Vero Beach ,Florida.One of Baker's "Zulu" series paintings, is hanging at The Agnes Etherington Museum donated by David Mirivish, to The Alkis Klonarides Collection(in his honor) outside of Toronto, Canada. Her paintings are often included in The exhibitions of Abstract Art of The Edmonton Art Gallery, donated by Graham Peacock, Canadian Artist. Upcoming exhibitions currently being planned, are for China, and Belgium.(Updated 2/8/2011). Video about Baker can be found on Youtube.(Lucy Baker-Abstract Acrylic Paintings

These are photos of a photo shoot, and article from "Elegancy" Magazine taken by an unkown photographer at Lucy Baker's one person exhibition in Tianjin, China ,in 2008. Baker's work was used as the backdrop for this fashion magazine spread.In some photo's the rooms of the exhibition are visible and in some, are details of the model preparing for the shoot.