IN THE SPOTLIGHT
ALICE BABER
Alice Baber
COTTONE AUCTIONS
Fine Art, Antiques & Clocks
Alice Baber
"Green Around Green"
Oil on canvas. Signed 'Baber' (lower left). Signed, titled and dated 'Alice Baber "Green Around Green" 1966' (on reverse).
33 x 33 in.
Provenance
Artists for SEDF (Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund for Racial Equality, Inc.)
Collection of Michael and Frida (Kleinfeld) Pauker, New York, New York.
Jane Margot Davis, Kingston, New York, acquired by descent, 1971.
Provenance Note: Michael Pauker, board chairman of the Barclay Knitwear Company Inc., which he had founded almost a half century ago, believed to be one of the oldest and most successful manufacturers of men's sportswear in the United States. In addition to an active business career, Mr. Pauker spent considerable time and effort on many philanthropic causes. Following World War II, he was a participant in the campaign that was to bring many of the survivors of the Nazi era to what was then Palestine. He was a past chairman of the March of Dimes, the United Jewish Appeal, the Greater New York Fund, a director of Maimonodes Institute, a founder of the Albert Einstein School of Medicine and a trustee of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue.
September 25, 2025
SOTHEBY’S NY
Alice Baber
Tree of Life II
signed (lower right); signed (upper left); signed twice, titled twice and dated 1974 twice (on the overlap)
acrylic on canvas
63 ¾ by 37 ¾ in.
161.9 by 95.9 cm.
Executed in 1974.
Sotheby’s is delighted to collaborate with Daniel Humm, the three-Michelin-starred chef and visionary restaurateur behind Eleven Madison Park and Clemente Bar for Contemporary Curated. The September sale will highlight landmark artists of the postwar era, including Keith Haring, Joan Mitchell, Wayne Thiebaud, Alex Katz, Alice Baber and Helen Frankenthaler, alongside leading voices in contemporary art today.
September 26, 2025
JOHN MORAN
Alice Baber
"The Swing and the Bridge," 1970
Oil on canvas
38" H x 61" W
Signed, titled, dated, all twice, and numbered "#359," on the upper and lower canvas overlaps, verso
Provenance:
AM Sachs Gallery, New York, NY
Private Midwest Institutional Collection
September 30, 2025
This photograph of Alice Baber in her studio in 1972 first appeared in the original exhibition
brochure for A.M Sachs Gallery.
Offered in the upcoming John Moran Auction- “The Swing and The Bridge” 1970 is the painting in the photograph on the lower right hand side.
SOTHEBYS
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.
17 July - 31 August 2025 |New York
SOTHEBYS
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.
17 July - 31 August 2025 | New York
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
GENE DAVIS
Gene Davis
RAGO AUTIONS
Post War & Contemporary Art
Gene Davis
Lemon Juicer
1958
oil on canvas14¼ h × 18⅛ w in (36 × 46 cm)
Rago / Wright's fall Post War & Contemporary Artauction presents a compelling selection of works from leading visionaries of the 20th and 21st centuries. Among the leading canvases are Archibald J. Motley, Jr.'s 1927 Kikuyu God of Fire, Miyoko Ito's Door to the Sea, Wojciech Fangor's 1971 SU 12, and Gertrude Abercrombie's Broken Tree, accompanied by a 1988 untitled mixed-media work from Keith Haring and Takashi Murakami's monumental—and monumentally charming—Panda Géant. Further highlights include works from Neil Jenney, Gene Davis, Charles Alston, Esteban Vicente, Ilya Bolotowsky, Jules Olitski, Anselm Kiefer, Joan Mitchell, Katherine Bradford, and many more.
September 26, 2025
JON SCHUELER
Jon Schueler
GLOBE NEWSWIRE
Superman Star David Corenswet Executive Produces Documentary About Art World's Unlikely Guardian
"Woman in the Sky" Makes its World Premiere at Academy Award-Qualifying Festival this August.
The documentary Woman in the Sky, executive produced and shot by David Corenswet, star of SUPERMAN, will have its world premiere at the 2025 Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, on Thursday, August 7th. The film tells the extraordinary story of Magda Salvesen, who met Abstract Expressionist Jon Schueler in Scotland when she was 26 and he was 54. A few months later he wrote a will leaving her the entire body of his work. Since Schueler’s death in 1992, Salvesen has donned the mantle and secured his legacy, ensuring its preservation.
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
WOMAN IN THE SKY
Magda Salvesen lives amongst thousands of her late husband's paintings. Her loft -- the same one she and Jon shared as a couple -- remains both her home and the site of the recently formed Jon Schueler Foundation, a living museum dedicated to preserving Jon's legacy. Every wall is hung with Schuelers -- they surround Magda's life, and make it up. A celebrated garden and art historian in her own right, Magda has nonetheless dedicated her life to these paintings.
Director Biography - Max Woertendyke