IN THE SPOTLIGHT
ALICE BABER
Alice Baber
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
D. WIGMORE FINE ART, INC
THE PATTERN & DECORATION MOVEMENT, 1975-1985
Gene Davis
“This recalls Clement Greenberg’s writing regarding the 1960s Color School and their activation of the painting surface by leaving the raw canvas exposed. In a way, these 1960s artists were the first to draw attention to the intimate connection between painting and textile. For this reason, we include three 1980s paintings by Washington Color School artist Gene Davis (1920-1985) in our exhibition. These Davis works also show the broad reach of textiles in the 1980s as his loosely stained stripes of alternating colors suggest the in-and-out process of weaving canvas from thread.”
— Emily Lenz
September 3 - November 7, 2025
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
MILES MCENERY GALLERY
GENE DAVIS
“Made between 1961 and 1985, the eight enormous acrylic-on-canvas paintings by Gene Davis in this show—all composed of vertical bands and stripes—testify to the artist’s devotion to color. “To understand what my painting is all about,” Davis once said, “look at my painting in terms of individual colors . . . select[ing] a specific color such as yellow or a lime green, and take the time to see how it operates across the painting.”
—Donald Kuspit
JON SCHUELER
Jon Schueler
WOMAN IN THE SHY
Magda Salvesen was 26 and working at the Scottish Arts Council when she met 54-year-old American abstract expressionist Jon Schueler in 1970. A few months later he wrote a will leaving her the ENTIRE body of his work.
About the Production
Woman in the Sky is produced by Noble Gas Media, with Max Woertendyke directing and producing. Julia Best Warner also produces. David Corenswet serves as executive producer and cinematographer.
Austin Film Festival Screening Details
Woman in the Sky will screen at Austin Film Festival twice:
October 24 @ 4pm
October 29 @ 3:15pm
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.
SOROKIN GALLERY
Jon Schueler
St. Nazaire: Sky Red Blues
oil on canvas
New York, November 1982
70 x 63 in/177.8 x 160.02 cm
o/c 1276
Upcoming Solo Exhibition
Sept.18 to October 29, 2025
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