Alice Baber Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

Even though in her later life, she experienced great “pain and debilitation” from cancer, she continued to paint. Baber died of cancer in 1982. She was interred in Fairview Cemetery in Edgar County, Illinois.

From 1976 to 1978, Baber traveled to 13 Latin American countries with the U.S. State Department, exhibiting her work and lecturing on art. In 1979, Baber was an artist-in-residence at the Tamarind Institute print workshop.

In 1975, Baber curated the exhibition “Color, Light and Image”. An international exhibition of 125 women artists in celebration of the United Nations’ International Women’s Year. The show was held at the Women’s Interart Center in New York City.

In 1964, she married the painter Paul Jenkins. The marriage was a time of “artistic growth” for both of them. Together, that same year, they traveled to Japan and collected a large amount of Asian art. They were later divorced, in 1970.

In 1959, she showed paintings throughout Europe, including the first “Jeune Biennale” of the American Cultural Center in Paris, France. Her early life as a “nomad” may have influenced her somewhat: she began to divide her years by living in France for six months every year for a period of time.

In 1958, Baber had her first solo show in New York at March Gallery where she was a member. In that same year, she was also granted a studio residency at the Yaddo Art Colony. During this time, she began to develop her unique explorations of color that derive from the “infinite range of possibilities” for exploring color and light within the form of the circle. She told Brian Jones that she was looking for a “way to get the light moving across the whole thing” in Battle of the Oranges. This creative inspiration became fundamental to her artistic approach.

Baber chose to study art when she attended Lindenwood College for Women in Missouri, where she spent two years before transferring to Indiana University. At Indiana University, she studied under the figurative expressionist, Alton Pickens. She received her Master of Arts in 1951 and then began to travel through Europe. She studied briefly at the École des Beaux-Arts and lived in Paris in the late 1950s and 1960s. During her travels in Europe, she made a living through her writing and was the art editor of McCall’s.

Baber began her career working primarily in oils, but began experimenting with watercolor paints in the 1950s. Her experimentation with watercolor initiated a shift in style for Baber as she went from painting still lifes to creating more abstracted works. Her abstract works focus on color and form with shapes such as the circle being a common motif. Baber was well known for her use of light and color holding several exhibitions devoted to these themes.

Alice Baber (August 22, 1928 – October 2, 1982) was an American abstract expressionist painter who worked in oil and watercolor. She was educated in the United States and in the 1950s and 1960s she studied and lived in Paris. She also traveled around the world. Baber, a feminist, organized exhibits of women artists’ work.