Agnes Martin
Agnes Martin was a Canadian-born American painter known for quiet abstract grids and stripes, delicate pencil lines, and softly colored canvases.
Painter
Jo Baer
Jo Baer was an American painter known for Minimalist canvases with narrow color bands at the edges, then later figurative imagery in her work.
Jo Baer quick facts
Jo Baer moved from hard-edge abstraction to figurative painting, with early works using narrow borders and color contrast to shape perception.
| Full name | Josephine Gail Kleinberg |
|---|---|
| Born | August 7, 1929 · Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
| Died | January 21, 2025 · Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Nationality | American |
| Movements | Minimalism (1960s hard-edge paintings); later figurative painting |
| Paint types | Oil paint and acrylic paint, documented in Primary Light Group: Red, Green, Blue (1964–65) |
| Other media | — |
| Other materials | — |
| Painting surfaces | Canvas; later work also used unstretched canvas |
| Painting methods | Applied narrow bands of black and color around pale or white interiors to create edge-based optical effects |
| Common subjects | Border bands, empty central fields, symbols, and figurative imagery |
| Notable works | Untitled (Korean) (1962–63) · Double-Bar, Grey (Green Line) (1968) · Memorial for an Art World Body (Nevermore) (2009) |
Sources: MoMA: Double-Bar, Grey (Green Line), Whitney: Jo Baer and Untitled (Korean), MoMA: Remembering Jo Baer (later oil painting), Guggenheim: Jo Baer.
Paint types used by Jo Baer
The documented paint types in Jo Baer’s work include Oil, Acrylic; examples below connect each medium to a specific work and clarify its role in the image.
-
Oil paint
Baer used oil in both her early abstract paintings and later figurative works. MoMA records Double-Bar, Grey (Green Line) as oil, with narrow colored bars and dark borders producing precise edge relationships; a 2009 painting shifts to figures and narrative. The medium anchors two markedly different phases of her practice.
-
Acrylic paint
MoMA catalogs Primary Light Group: Red, Green, Blue (1964–65) as oil and acrylic on three canvases. Baer paired the two binders within carefully bordered panels, using color divisions and hard edges to organize the viewer’s perception. This is a documented mixed-medium painting, not acrylic alone.
Sources: MoMA: Double-Bar, Grey (Green Line); MoMA: Primary Light Group: Red, Green, Blue; MoMA: Remembering Jo Baer and her later oil painting; Whitney Museum: Jo Baer and Untitled (Korean).
Painting surfaces used by Jo Baer
Collection records show Jo Baer working on Canvas; the examples below distinguish painted supports from backing, collage, or sculptural components.
-
Canvas
Baer’s paintings use canvas, including MoMA’s three-panel Primary Light Group: Red, Green, Blue and later works made on unstretched fabric. The support spans her early, carefully bounded abstractions and a later figurative practice; the particular construction varies by work rather than following a single format.
Sources: MoMA: Double-Bar, Grey (Green Line), Whitney: Jo Baer and Untitled (Korean), MoMA: Remembering Jo Baer (later oil painting), Guggenheim: Jo Baer.
Painters similar to Jo Baer
Martin explored delicate lines and grid relationships, while Stella’s early geometric paintings offer a comparison with Baer’s edge-focused compositions.
Frank Stella
Frank Stella was an American artist whose abstract paintings moved from spare black stripes to shaped canvases and vividly colored constructions.