Description of the Work: "Thistle #1, 1999" by Donald Baechler
Donald Baechler: Thistle #1, The Incarnation of Art Brut, Pop, and Graphic Design
"Thistle #1" is a mature and significant work by Donald Baechler, created in 1999 using a mixed media of acrylics and fabric collage on canvas, measuring 152 x 152 cm. This work fully encapsulates the artist's iconic style, combining stylized pictorial elements in the foreground on a base of overlapping, worked and painted canvases.
The work is a true crossroads of different artistic currents of the 20th century:
Art Brut: In the comical and almost childlike style of the silhouette of a flower (a thistle), which evokes spontaneity and immediacy.
Graffiti: Evident in the use of dripping paint on the flower, which adds an element of raw energy.
American Pop Art: Manifested through collages of everyday images and materials. In particular, two photographs of the artist as a young man are visible in the upper left, inserting an element of personal iconography into the universal.
Portraying the image with his brush, Baechler excels in his mastery of the relationship between graphic line and painterly gesture, eliminating unnecessary details to reduce the form to a symbolic and humorous essence.
The work "Thistle #1" is in excellent condition, is signed, dated and titled on the back, and comes from the prestigious Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York, as indicated by the label on the back.
Donald Baechler: Thistle #1 (1999). Acrylics and collage, 152 x 152 cm. Art Brut and Pop Art style. Provenance: Tony Shafrazi Gallery.
