Winner, Canadian Museums Association Outstanding Achievement in
Publication and Melva J. Dwyer AwardIain Baxter legally changed his
name to IAIN BAXTER& in 2005. He appended an ampersand to his
name to underscore that art is about connectivity -- about
contingency and collaboration with a viewer. He also effected the
name change to perpetuate a strategy of self re-definition that is
central to his creative project. BAXTER& began making art in
the late-1950s under his birth name but quickly realized that the
name itself was creative material, to be deployed, manipulated, and
shared. In 1965, he formed a collaborative art-making entity which
evolved into N.E. Thing Company, a corporate-styled entity whose
co-presidents were BAXTER& and his wife Ingrid. Producing a
diverse array of projects that encompassed conceptually based
photography, pioneering works of appropriation art, and gallery
transforming installations, the N.E. Thing Company offered a new
model of art making, allowing the artists to remain anonymous and
masquerade in the guise of business people. Following the
dissolution of N.E. Thing Company in 1978, BAXTER& produced
extensive bodies of work with Polaroid film, created numerous
installations that blended painting and sculpture, and made
pedagogy a focus of his creative enterprise. Consistent themes
permeate his work and vector through his thinking. And by assessing
these themes -- a relentless emphasis on reaching out to the
viewer, a core concern with ecology and the environment, and a
belief that art must assume plural means and media -- one discerns
BAXTER&'s creative credo, understanding that "art is all over."
This comprehensive book reviews BAXTER&'s remarkable career
across all media. It accompanies a major international touring
exhibition, which opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
in November 2011 and at the Art Gallery of Ontario in April 2012.
Featuring more than 160 reproductions of BAXTER&'s work, it
also includes essays by the exhibition's curator, David Moos, along
with contributions by Michael Darling (James W. Alsdorf Chief
Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago), Alex Alberro
(Associate Professor, University of Florida), and others. The book
will also feature a comprehensive bibliography compiled by Adam
Lauder (W.P. Scott Chair for Research in E-Librarianship, York
University).
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