Line, Form & Balance in the Collection of Donald Baechler
Donald Baechler once said about his own practice of making art that “I am an abstract artist before anything else; for me it’s always been more about line, form, balance, and the edge of the canvas.” These words create a thematic thread that runs through Baechler’s collection, helping to define not only his thoughts about his own art, but what interested him in other artists’ work. Paintings and drawings that are built on notions of the quality of line, form and balance make up a large portion of the Collection of Donald Baechler. Works by Scott Reeder, Olivier Mosset, Philip Taaffe, James Brown, Bob Law, Richard Artschwager, James Nares, Kevin Baker, Mark Dagley, Gerhard Naschberger, Sol Lewitt, Brice Marden and Ross Bleckner all associate with one of these tenets, either directly or indirectly. When seen together as a collection, the works that Donald Baechler chose to acquire represent the central thoughts he had about his own art-making, and give us a view into his creative mind through the works of art he chose to surround himself with.