IN THE SPOTLIGHT
ALICE BABER
Alice Baber
WOMEN ARTISTS IN ASCENDANCE
Featuring objects on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art alongside the university art collection, Women Artists in Ascendance pulls back the curtain on the story of modern American art by displaying works from a dozen women artists who were goliaths in their own right, including Helen Frankenthaler, Alice Baber, Grace Hartigan, Lee Krasner, Joan Brown, Amanda Williams and other notable women artists.
Exhibition Info:
August 19, 2025 — July 2, 2026
Bill L. Harbert Gallery
THE AUBURN PLAINSMAN
Redefining American art through untold stories at The Jule Museum
In his presentation, Nemerov highlighted the concept of livingness, or a sense of life, that was integral to the works of Frankenthaler. He also detailed how other artists featured in the exhibit portray that sense of livingness in vastly different ways. Some, such as Hartigan, opted for darker bolder motifs, and others, such as Baber, employed lighter and more subtle techniques.
Visitors to the exhibit can see the liveliness of the art with Frankenthaler's "Blue Territory," Hardigan's "Sweden" and Baber's "Lord of the Rainbow" – all being showcased in the exhibit. Ethan Olsen, one visitor to the exhibition, described why he found the storytelling of the collection to be impactful. By Erin Cosby
Photo by Roxy Duda | Photographer | The Auburn Plainsman
ALICE BABER
Cottone Auctions Closes September With $2.4 Million Sale
Women artists commanded top results. A canvas by feminist painter Alice Baber, “Green Around Green,” realized $170,800. Baber, who studied in Paris and exhibited internationally, developed a luminous technique of thin glazes, guided by her belief that “color is light made visible.” A modernist oil, “Cat Lady” (1978), by Sally Michel Avery, wife of Milton Avery, achieved $82,960. “Late Summer” by Navajo artist Emmi Whitehorse brought $85,400.
DOYLE AUCTIONS
Alice Baber
The Deep, 1965
Signed Baber (lr), also signed, titled, and dated New York 1965 and inscribed top on the canvas overlap
Oil on canvas
20 x 14 inches
November 20, 2025
JOHN MORAN AUCTIONEERS
Alice Baber
"Red Knight," 1965
Oil on canvas
Signed lower left: Baber; signed again, titled, dated, and inscribed on the upper and lower stretchers: Alice Baber New York 1965
14" H x 10" W
Modern + Contemporary Fine Art
December 10, 2025
JOHN MORAN AUCTIONEERS
Alice Baber
"The Royal Court of the Jaguars," 1979
Oil on canvas
Signed, titled, and dated on the canvas overlap: Alice Baber 1979; numbered "#135" on the upper portion of the stretcher
36" H x 72" W
Modern + Contemporary Fine Art
December 10, 2025
Gail Levin
Danielle Johnson
THE ART MUSEUM OF GREATER LAFAYETTE
Exploring the Collection: Alice Baber
An insightful exploration of the abstract expressionist painter Alice Baber. Discover her extensive works from our Permanent Collection and listen to renowned speakers Danielle Johnson and Gail Levin discuss her life and lasting impact on the art world.
Don't miss the chance to attend a book signing for the upcoming release, Alice Baber: An Artist's Triumph Over Tragedy, with author Gail Levin following the program! Learn more about the book here: CLICK HERE For more details.
ALICE BABER AN ARTIST’S TRIUMPH OVER TRAGEDY BY GAIL LEVIN
ABOUT THE BOOK
The definitive biography of abstract artist Alice Baber, whose luminous and beloved works took the world by storm.
From one of the most acclaimed art biographers writing today comes the surprising life of Alice Baber, who produced exquisite abstract paintings of vibrantly colored shapes that created an illusion of floating light. Heralded as an “artist of lyrical abstractions,” Baber’s paintings had already entered the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan, the Guggenheim, and the Whitney at the time of her premature death at just fifty-four. How could such an accomplished and visionary artist then fall into near obscurity?
In Alice Baber, Baber's fascinaitng story is finally revealed, despite efforts to consign her to oblivion by her competitive ex-husband, his surviving widow, and by major male art historians and curators who conspired to promote his art and at her expense. Her ex-husband’s widow sold the late Baber’s work to a gallery only if it agreed not to give her a show.
Alice Baber is a vital corrective to the history of American art and a thrilling opportunity for the next generation experience Baber anew. Vividly written and richly detailed, we journey through her rural upbringing as a childhood prodigy to her years exhibiting around the world and experience the heady mid-century art world in all it’s glory.
Levin’s dynamic prose brings to life this synesthetic artist who links color to both movement and sound. We witness Baber's talent and ambition, her tenacity, charm, and her generosity of spirit. Her early feminist activism and her work as a curator helped other artists, and her deep connection to literature and poetry. Alice Baber: An Artist's Triumph Over Tragedy is an insightful and stunning portrait that resurrects a central figure in modern art.
About the Author
Gail Levin is the author of Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography, Becoming Judy Chicago, Lee Krasner: A Biography and many other books on twentieth-century and contemporary art. She is Distinguished Professor of Art History, American Studies, and Women's Studies at the Graduate Center and Baruch College of the City University of New York.
Publisher: Pegasus Books (February 3, 2026)
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Length: 448 pages
ISBN13: 9798897100408
The Book will be released on February 3, 2026
SOTHEBYS NY
Alice Baber
The Green Door to the Wind
signed, titled and dated 1976 on the overlap
Acrylic on canvas
30 by 40 in.
76 by 101.5 cm.
Executed in 1976.
Sotheby’s Private Sales is pleased to present a thoughtfully curated selection of works in their summer selling exhibition opening in New York.
SOTHEBYS NY
Alice Baber
Violet Passing
signed Baber 68 (lower left), signed, titled and dated New York 1968 on the overlap
Oil on canvas
24 by 18 in.
61 by 45.5 cm.
Executed in 1968.
Sotheby’s Private Sales is pleased to present a thoughtfully curated selection of works in their summer selling exhibition opening in New York.
GENE DAVIS
Gene Davis
HERITAGE AUCTIONS
Gene Davis
Job's Mirror II, 1981
Acrylic on canvas
93 x 10-1/2 inches (236.2 x 26.7 cm)
Signed, dated, and titled on the reverse: Job's Mirror II / (1981) / Gene Davis
November 19, 2025
WADDINGTO’S AUCTIONS
Gene Davis
WASH DAY, 1970
Acrylic on Canvas
signed, titled, and dated verso; also titled and dated to gallery label verso
24 x 30 in — 61 x 76.2 cm
Art auction includes important works by Group of Seven artists Lawren Harris, A.J. Casson, J.E.H. MacDonald, and A.Y. Jackson, a rare Jock Macdonald abstract, early Kazuo Nakamura paintings, Louis-Philippe Hébert’s major sculpture Algonquins, as well as striking works by Sorel Etrog and Walter Yarwood. International highlights include two exceptionally rare sketches by Sir Edward John Poynter for the Maison Dieu’s stained-glass windows in Dover, Alexander Calder’s Red Serpent, along with works by David Diao, Jules Olitski, and Gene Davis.
NOVEMBER 20, 2025 8:00 PM EST
TORONTO, ON, CA
A CONVERSATION WITH GENE DAVIS
Do you think it might have something to do with spatial qualities?
What my stripes have become now are quite different from what they started out as. I didn’t really understand what I was about at first. I think maybe the best painters don’t know what they’re doing in the beginning. The painter who can tell you exactly what he’s doing isn’t doing much. At first I didn’t have the foggiest notion of what I was doing. It just seemed like maybe a good idea. Pure whim motivated it. I think that’s a pretty good motivation anyway, to do something just for the sheer hell of it. Later I began to realize there was something behind my decision. You see, I’m a frustrated musician. I studied music all through my teens. But I have a tin ear, and I wasn’t really very good. Painting stripes with musical intervals may be a kind of unconscious compensation for the fact that I never made it as a musician. I don’t set out to do musical paintings—that’s corny. The fact remains, however, that music is an art of interval and my work is an art of interval.
I have always been an interval artist. Even now in the new black and white paintings I’m working on, I am interested in spatial interval. Before it was color interval.
—Barbara Rose
THE PAINTER WHO EARNED HIS STRIPES
Gene Davis, the leading member of the Washington Color School, is celebrated a half century after his striped paintings caught on
“The Smithsonian Institution, which benefitted from a generous amount of his work donated to the museum after his death in 1985 at 64, may have missed the 50th anniversary of the landmark “Washington Color Painters” exhibition last year, but is making up for it with the newly opened “Gene Davis: Hot Beat” at its Smithsonian American Art Museum.
—Roger Catlin - Museums Correspondent
JON SCHUELER
Jon Schueler
ART AT KIRKCALDY GALLERIES
Collecting the Contemporary: Scottish Art at Kirkcaldy Galleries
This display features works by modern and contemporary painters who were inspired by Scotland. In addition to works by John Bellany, Ken Currie, Callum Innes and Jon Schueler,
31 Jan 2025 - 31 Dec 2027
Acclaimed Art World Documentary from Executive Producer David Corenswet Expands National Reach with Austin Film Festival Selection
"Woman in the Sky" Offers an Intimate Portrait of Love, Legacy, and Magda Salvesen's Pioneering Role in Artist Estate Management.