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Weary Family Foundation

Beach Museum of Art
Kansas State University
701 Beach Lane,
Manhattan, KS 66506
(14th & Anderson Ave.)

785-532-7718
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The Golden River
The Golden River
The Golden River

The Golden River

Artist (United States, 1928 - 1982)
Date1974
MediumWatercolor on paper
DimensionsIMAGE/SHEET: 30 1/2 x 22 1/4 in.
IMAGE/SHEET: 775 x 565 mm
Object TypeDrawings
Credit LineKSU, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art
Object number2017.562
On View
On view
Description

·         The free form, almost floral, quality of The Golden River, recalls the work of Georgia O’Keefe with a unique brightness and fluidity that give Baber’s work its own identity.

·         Once Baber moved to New York, in 1951, she found her way into the abstract expressionist movement. Abstract expressionism in the 1950s was dominated by male figures like Jackson Pollack and Mark Rothko.

·         In 1976 she was part of an exhibition at McCain Auditorium, Kansas State University. Unfortunately, a Manhattan Mercury article of the time reports the theft of two of these paintings. It is unknown how the watercolor came to the university, but it is possible it was acquired from this exhibition.

·         In a 1973 interview, Alice said of her work, “One of the things that I am interested in is the idea of the painting.... I feel that an abstract painting is outer space, and I am in front of it, suspended in outer space, so that there isn't any horizon line. However, there is probably a sense of up and down, and side to side. There is a sense of infinity, which I like very much. And I like the idea of infinity coming way forward, so that you have reverse infinity.”