All About H. Arcuata by Jo Baer

Title of Artwork: “H. Arcuata”

Artwork by Jo Baer

Year Created 1971

Summary of H. Arcuata

As a woman in the 1960s male-dominated New York art scene, Jo Baer was an outlier. Baer took an art course in Los Angeles from 1953 and 1960 after completing his studies in biology and perceptual psychology. Baer argued for the value of visual imagery within the framework of Minimal Art, despite the fact that Minimal artists actively opposed painting. Jo Baer gave her pictures a strong physical presence by declaring that a painting is an object and adopting an anti-illusionistic style.

One of a set of artworks from the ’70s designed to be hung low and viewed from a variety of angles, H. Arcuata depicts an orchid, its botanical name. Once the component sections and their growth along the picture’s edges are explored, the works become understandable. Artist Jo Baer believed her work aided in a conversation on “the sovereignty of the subject and linked questions about the nature of self-determination” (J.B.).

Information Citations:

En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.