Donald Baechler, born in Connecticut, was also a member of the East Village art scene in the early 1980’s. In his work, the pop influences of Warhol may be discerned in the recurring images of everyday objects: flowers or consumer goods appear equally in his paintings and sculptures. However, the thick outlines, the flatness of the forms, and the immediacy of his drawing, are reminiscent of the figures seen in children’s sketchbooks. Baechler goes through a process of searching for images in a personal archive of found and created images in order to build two “iconographic programs:” one for the background and one for the foreground of the painting. The basic element of these works is the combination of collage with painting and drawing. Baechler’s main concern is related to the line, the form and the balance of the painting, while the figures he draws are rather retro, as if drawn from childhood memories.
