Anna P. Baker Explained

Anna P. Baker (12 June 1928 – 28 February 1985) was a Canadian visual artist.

Career

Born in London, Ontario, Canada, she was adopted by Alfred Burrows Baker and Mabel Roberta Pearl Baker. She entered the University of Western Ontario where she was elected to the Art Students League, A.I.C., and Delta Phi Delta, and graduated in 1950. She received a BFA and a MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1954, and went on to teach art at Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, for three years.

She exhibited frequently in her home town of London, Ontario, and for many years at the 57th Street Art Fair in Chicago, and in many cities from Los Angeles to New York. In 1956 she won the top painting award in the Chicago Art Institute's 59th Chicago and Vicinity art annual for High Frequency Ping.[1]

Baker remained a Canadian citizen but for the last 29 years of her life, she lived in the village of Barton, Vermont, where she opted to bow out of the world of dealers and galleries so she could work in her own way on her own terms. On 28 February 1985, Anna died in Kingston, Ontario, from cancer.

Work

Baker integrated her eclectic interests into the subject matter of her paintings. Her memories of her home town, London, Ontario and of her childhood are transcribed into an earlier time frame in such works as: London Airport - 1910, Elmwood Bowling Green, The Victoria Jane, Tennis - 1910, Baseball Game, Orangeman's Parade, With Mutes and Plumes and The Garden Party.

Interested in theatre, she created The Ambrose Small Series. Ambrose Small was the proprietor of the Grand Theatre (now Theatre London) who disappeared 2 December 1919 after selling his theatrical holdings, leaving his wife, $2 million and a legal tangle. His legend has inspired many words and the continuing rumour that his ghost haunts Theatre London. Baker envisioned productions as they might have been in the time of Small. Twenty-four paintings were exhibited at the Nancy Poole Studio including Ambrose Small Production of Rose Marie, Ambrose Small; Production of the Dumbbells, An Ambrose Small Production of "Polly of the Circus" in which he is depicted floating over the top of the production, Ambrose Small Production of Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ladies of the Chorus.

On the subject of art, she created The Rosa Bonheur Series, 18 paintings in which she visualized the French realist painter and sculptor on imaginary world travels. The Ascension of Rosa Bonheur Over Niagara Falls, Rosa Bonheur in Venice, and Rosa Bonheur is Late for the Ambassador's Ball are a few from this series. These were exhibited at the Howell Gallery in London, Canada. Baker felt very much akin to Rosa whose whole life was art. She often signed her letters, "Rosa Bonheur of the Northeast Kingdom", the Northeast Kingdom being northeast Vermont. This was put on her tombstone in Scottsville, Ontario.

On history: Before Salisbury, Laura Secord and Her Cow, The Trojan Horse (created while still at the Art Institute of Chicago), Queen Victoria Reviewing the Troops with the Duke of Wellington After Landseer, Two Phoenicians.

On literature, she created Don Quixote, The Cranford Series, Shakespearean Series, Reluctance (Robert Frost)

The Shakespearean series was inspired by a visit to the Stratford Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario, in the mid-1960s. Festival, Richard III, Henry V, Malvolio and Taming of the Shrew are the titles of some of the paintings from this series. Help was received from a Canada Council grant, 1968.

There are two series of paintings and drawings from the book, Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. In the last series of 13 paintings, the titles included The Cat that Swallowed the Lace, He Knew Cream Quite Well and Constantly Refused Tea With Only Milk in It, and If the Supposed Robbers Would Come to Him He would Fight Them, Our Idea of the Dignity of Silence was Paling Before our Curiosity, She Did Not Seem to Notice the Extraordinary Size and Complexity of Her Headdress.

In terms of biology, she painted numerous owl paintings, The Cornish Cat, Three Grouse, The Great Lobster Catch, Bird, Owl and a Very Fat Dog, Baboon, Butterflies and Moths. Baker painted or sketched owls throughout her career; the Holstein cow or cows were her signature cartoons for The Chronicle newspaper. She also did a series on circus parades which included such works as: Circus Wagon with Lion, Circus Wagon with Bears, Circus Wagon with Mermaid, Circus Parade with Walrus, Circus Wagon with Alligator, Marching Circus Band and Circus Wagons with Monkeys and Giraffes.

Baker received awards including the Frank G Logan prize at the Chicago and Vicinity Exhibition in 1956 for High Frequency Ping and from the New England Press, Best Illustration, Daily, Class 1, First Place, Times Argus.

Comments from critics

"Anna Baker works magnificently in many media. Her pictures reveal the true mark of genius – an originality and technical excellence that offer her viewers a glimpse into a personal world of her own devising." Laurence Lariar, New York art dealer, 1967.

Anna's "Unique sense of humour and incredible capacity for painstaking detail makes her work inimitable. Like all good art, Ms. Baker's compositions are basically abstract, but the images that she develops often are quizzical, evoked in dots, dashes, and color shapes that leave no area without interest." "To own an Anna Baker drawing/painting is to be on daily contact with a blithe spirit who is also one of our most accomplished artists". Harold Hayden, art critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, 1979.

"Fanciful geometric wisps, suggesting the architecture of flowers and snow stars form the cellular structure of man and beast as created by artist Anna Baker. Thus the detailing of these fine examples of decorative art is as complex as watchworks, as equisite as doilies. The method, rendered with ink, as well as watercolors and oil paints, becomes a tour de force, and the compositions are as stylized as stage sets for an allegory." Beverly E. Johnson, Los Angeles Times Home Magazine, 4 February 1968.

When The Chronicle in 1974 began publishing in Barton, Vermont, Anna "began illustrating its humour column. Her first illustration showed the artist seated on a Holstein cow. ... She began to submit cartoons featuring two wall-eyed Holsteins who regularly observe the triumphs and follies of the Northeast Kingdom" (NE Vermont). Tom Slayton, Times Argus, 4 September 1983.

"Anna P. Baker, former Chicagoan creates a marvelous storybook world of her own in her infinitely detailed, intricate paintings and drawings. Her work can be seen here only at the Little Gallery, 1328 E. 57th St. which is directed by Mary Louise Womer and Mrs. Carl Schniewind, widow of the late director of the Art institute's prints and drawings department. Visitors flock to see a Baker show ... Miss Baker's collection is called 'Chiefly Cornish' having been done during a year's visit to Cornwall, England. The 35 pictures are filled with the high quality and the charm of her work. Her pen often reveals her lively wit as well as her originality and her imagination". Edith Weigle, art critic for the Chicago Tribune, 19 November 1961.

Exhibitions

The above biography was written by Anna Baker. The following information was assembled from material from her estate.

Notes and References

  1. Chicago Is Not That Sick . 19 March 1956 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20081214103637/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,824055,00.html . 14 December 2008 . 18 August 2008 . dead .

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