Brilliant Yellow #9

In the I960s Jo Baer emerged as a central figure in the community of Minimalist and Conceptual artists that included Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, and Sol Le Witt. Although Baer's work from this period relied on the simple geometric forms and serial imagery of these movements, her practice was distinguished by her unwavering commitment to the medium of paint on canvas. Baer was primarily interested in using painting as a vehicle for exploring visual perception. From 1963 to 1975 she limited her "imagery" to bands of black combined with colors only at the edges of her canvases in order to emphasize the essential, objectlike qualities of each painting's rectangular form.