Donald Baechler was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1956. He currently (2002) lives and works in New York City. He received his formal education from Staatliche Hochschule fur Bildende Kuenste, "Staedelschule", Frankfurt am Main, Germany (1978-1979), Cooper Union, New York (1977-1978) and Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore (1974-1977).

Ardently collecting work from various cultures, he is interested in their different approaches to drawing. He is also inspired by things "drawn on toilet walls or things drawn by someone I meet in a bar . . ." or by illustrations found in the Yellow Pages and in cheap magazines. These drawings with texts or photographs and inspirations are mixed with acrylic paints, enamel house paints on the same canvas to make assemblages.

"In paintings characteristic of 1980s and 90s Post-modernism, he combines Expressionism and Bad Painting, references and quotations, art brut and naive painting, high and low, realism, gestural painting and flat masses of color" (Ribettes).

Credits:
Laura de Coppet & Alan Jones, "The Art Dealers, The Power Behind the Scene Tell How the Art World Works"

Jean-Michel Ribettes, "Art at the Turn of the Millennium"

DONALD BAECHLER (1956 - )

BORN:
Hartford, Connecticut 1956
Lives and works in New York City

EDUCATION:
1974-77 Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore
1977-78 Cooper Union, New York
1978-79 Staatliche Hochschule fuer Bildende Kuenste, "Staedelschule",Frankfurt am Main, Germany

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1980
Artists Space, New York
Studio Cannaviello, Milan, Italy

1982
Hallwalls, Buffalo NY

1983
Tony Shafrazi, New York

1984
Ascan Crone, Hamburg, Germany; "Neue Bilder"
Tony Shafrazi, New York

1985
Pat Hearn, New York
Real Art Ways, Hartford CT
Ascan Crone, Hamburg; "Hamburger Gemaelde"
Tony Shafrazi, New York

1986
Akira Ikeda, Nagoya, Japan; "New Paintings"
Larry Gagosian, Los Angeles
Anders Tornberg, Lund, Sweden

1987
Tony Shafrazi, New York
Ascan Crone, Hamburg; "Neue Arbeiten"
Mayor Rowan, London, England
Galeria Leyendecker, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

1988
Thomas Cohn Arte Contemporanea, Rio de Janiero, Brazil; "Pinturas 1986-1988"
University Galleries, Illinois State University,"Donald Baechler Paintings and Drawings: 1982-1987"; and Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University "Donald Baechler Paintings 1981-1987"
Galeria Il Capricorno, Venice, Italy
Anders Tornberg, Lund; "Donald Baechler: Paintings, Drawings & Prints",

1989
Paul Kasmin, New York; "Works on Paper"
Tony Shafrazi, New York
Lars Bohman, Stockholm, Sweden; "Flowers and Trees"
E+O Friedrich, Bern, Switzerland
Lino Silverstein, Barcelona, Spain
Lucio Amelio, Naples, Italy

1990
Gian Enzo Sperone, Rome, Italy
Paul Kasmin, New York; "Works on Paper"
Tony Shafrazi, New York; "Paintings, Bronzes & Works on Paper"

1991
Lucio Amelio, Naples; "Prints & Collages"
Luhring Augustine Hetzler, Santa Monica CA
James Corcoran, Santa Monica, CA; "Paintings"
Max Hetzler, Cologne, Germany
Gisela Capitain, Cologne; "Collagen"
Anders Tornberg, Lund
Baron/Boisanté, New York; "Paintings of 1981 + 1982"
E+O Friedrich, Bern
Kunst-Station Sankt Peter Köln, Cologne

1992
Loyola University, New Orleans LA; "Works on Paper"
Pedro Oliveira, Porto, Portugal; "Works on Paper"
Gian Enzo Sperone, Rome; "Works on Paper"

1993
Gisela Capitain, Cologne; "Works on Paper"
Lars Bohman, Stockholm; "Abstract Painting With Bird"
Schönewald & Beuse, Krefeld, Germany; "Works on Paper"
UMKC Art Gallery, Kansas City MO ; "Works on Paper"
Sperone Westwater, New York; "Paintings, Works on Paper"
Paul Kasmin, New York; "Works on Paper"

1994
E+O Friedrich, Bern
Galleria Becherini, Florence, Italy
Pace Prints, New York; "Donald Baechler: Prints 'Days of the Week 1994'"
Laura Carpenter Fine Art, Santa Fe NM ; "Donald Baechler: Drawings"
Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France; "Donald Baechler: 'des Fleurs'"

1995
Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal; "Donald Baechler: York House Suite"
Baron/Boisanté, New York; "Donald Baechler: Large Works on Paper 1984-1994"
Fisher Landau Center, Long Island City NY; with Saint Clair Cemin
Bernd Klueser, Munich, Germany; "Black Flowers"
Kyoko Chirathivat, Bangkok, Thailand; "Paintings & Works on Paper"
Baldwin Gallery, Aspen CO; "Donald Baechler: Fish & Wildlife"
Tony Shafrazi, New York; "Donald Baechler: Selected Early Paintings"
Paul Kasmin, New York; "Works on Paper"
Adolf Ribbentrop, Eltville, Germany; "Donald Baechler: Neue Arbeiten"
Milleventi, Turin, Italy; "Donald Baechler 'Yankee Pieces' Torino"

1996
Galeria Leyendecker, Tenerife, Spain

1997
Harley Baldwin, Aspen ; "New Flowers"
Tony Shafrazi, New York; "Flowers"
Paul Kasmin, New York; "One Very Large Painting & One Very Large Bust"
Anders Tornberg, Lund; "21 Paintings"
Galleria Milleventi, Milan
Studio d'Arte Raffaelli, Trento, Italy; "Works on Paper"

1998
Locks Gallery, Philadelphia PA; "Works on Paper"
Lars Bohman, Stockholm; "Crowds"
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria; "Neue Bilder"
Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland; "New Paintings"
Baron/Boisanté, New York; "twenty-one etchings"
Galeria 56, Budapest, Hungary
Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea, Trento

1999
Cheim & Read, New York; "Crowd Paintings"
Tony Shafrazi, New York; "Paintings from Kunsthalle, Basel"
Greenberg Van Doren, St. Louis MO; "New Work"
Velge & Noirhomme, Brussels; "Collage Paintings"
Baron/Boisanté, New York; "New Color Aquatints"
Bernd Klueser, Munich; "Recent Paintings"
Lars Bohman, Stockholm; "Sculptures & Drawings"
Thomas Cohn, Sao Paulo; "New Paintings"
Locks Gallery, Philadelphia; "Donald Baechler"
Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris; "Globes and More"

2000
Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, East Hampton NY; "Donald Baechler: new paintings"
Baldwin Gallery, Aspen CO; "Buildings and Other New Paintings"
Pace/Prints, New York; "Recent Editions"
Galeria Leyendecker, Tenerife, Spain; "Donald Baechler"

2001
Tony Shafrazi, New York; "Five Easy Pieces"
Galerie Jan Wagner, Berlin; "Donald Baechler"
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris; "Oeuvres Récentes"
Studio d'Arte Raffaelli, Trento; "Some of My Subjects"

2002
Galleria Leyendecker, Tenerife, Spain
John Berggruen, San Francisco; "Principal & Auxillary Functions: Some Recent Pictures"
Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, San Marino, Italy; "77 Paintings"
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg
Alain Noirhomme, Brussels

2003
Cheim & Read, New York; "Donald Baechler"
Galerie Bernd Klueser, Munich; "Recent Paintings"
Mario Diacono, Ars Libri, Boston: "Thinking Without Words"

WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Guggenheim Museum, New York
New York Public Library, New York
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland
Centre George Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris
Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland
Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen, Germany
Museum Ludwig, Budapest
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
Städtische Galerie Schloss Wolfsburg, Germany
Lehnbachhaus, Munich, Germany
Musée Strassbourg, France
Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janiero, Brazil
Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden
Philadelphia Museum, Philadelphia
Springfield Art Museum, Missouri
St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri
Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California
Orlando Museum of Art, Florida
William Allen Memorial Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio

FOUNDATIONS
Eli Broad Family Foundation, Los Angeles CA
Fisher Landau Center, Long Island City, New York
Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany

CORPORATIONS
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York
Deutsche Bank, New York
Sony Corporation, New York

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Thomas Ammann Collection, Zürich, Switzerland
Peter Brant Collection, New York
Revlon Collection, New York
Howard Gittis Collection, New York

Donald Baechler was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1956 and came of age as a painter in the early 1980s when he began exhibiting internationally. Critics have stated that Donald Baechler's work "places him in the painterly tribe of Twombly, Ryman, Rauschenberg and Schwitters."

Donald Baechler works from his great inventory of worldly images. Recorded on slides and collected in the archives of his enormous Lower Manhattan studio, they are the sources for many of the images in his paintings and graphic work. The cast of characters, which also includes himself, come from every source imaginable, and are stamped, silk-screened, projected, drawn, painted, printed or collaged onto surfaces. Then the process begins: under painting, over painting, canceling, adding, subtracting, editing until the final work emerges. Baechler has also worked extensively in the graphic medium.

Donald Baechler's work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Centre George Pompidou in Paris.

Known for his "gee-whiz approach" to painting, in particular folksy renderings of faces and flowers, Donald Baechler became internationally known in the early 1980s at a time when his peers, like Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Basquiat were making the Downtown 500 a legendary New York phenomenon. Baechler, however, painted a different tune. Highly influenced by Cy Twombly and painting pioneer Giotto, Baechler instilled his figurative explorations with at once a seriousness and an absurdity that gets at the deeper aspects of humanity. With works in the permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Centre George Pompidou in Paris, and labelled one of the most important painters of his generation, Baechler maintains a market accessible for almost all level of collectors.

Donald Baechler was born in 1956. A key player in the Neo Expressionist movement, Baechler’s work can be similar to that of artists such as Keith Haring, Basquiat, and Kenny Scharf.

Baechler's images are graffiti inspired, and often use child-like imagery, reference Pop Art, and cultural symbols. Born to a Quaker family in Connecticut, Donald Baechler attended the Maryland Institute College of Art and Cooper Union.

His works can be seen in major museum collections across the globe. The artist lives in New York City.