News

In the flurry of Armory Week, it’s easy for even the most dedicated fairgoer to miss something. That why Artnet News staffers have compiled a compendium of notable works from the whirlwind week. While this year’s fare across the New York art fairs was heavy on painting, there were standouts in other media as well, from painted chaise longues to mixed-media works in the style of Social Realism. Without further delay, here are our favorites from Armory Week 2023…

Alice Baber, The Green Reed (1966)

Showing at: Berry Campbell Gallery at the Armory Show

Price: $200,000 

Why You Should Pay Attention: “Things are abuzz,” Berry Campbell gallery
co-owner Christine Berry told Artnet News on the VIP opening day of Armory Show, where, among other sales, the gallery counted that of Alice Baber’s vibrant, lush painting The Green Reed (1966), which sold for $200,000. Baber’s work could also be seen at Luxembourg’s booth at Independent 20th Century, which took place downtown.  

Baber was a founding member of the artist cooperative March Gallery along with Wilfrid Zogbaum and Elaine de Kooning, and had her first solo show at March Gallery in 1958. It was around that time that Baber found her mature style,
described by Grace Glueck for the New York Times: “Disks and puffs of pure bright color drift lyrically over a white field toward a gentle vortex.” Critic Roberta Smith remarked in Artforum that Baber’s iconic style was “soft and static, like hazy clouds.”

According to one essay, “Baber once famously described her intent as looking for a ‘way to get the light moving across the whole thing.’
To a large degree, she succeeded. Light streams across her paintings, seemingly from different directions at once, while her cloud-like shapes appear to float across the canvas.”

Still, Baber’s work was largely overlooked during her lifetime and only in recent years has the art market started paying attention. The timing was a plus for Campbell and Berry, who have the largest cache of works from Baber’s estate. “So far, so good,” Berry said.

At auction, the current record for a work by Baber is $275,000, paid for Axe In The Grove (1966), sold at John Moran in February of this year and far surpassing the high estimate of $70,000. 

Up Next: Berry Campbell will mount a solo show of the artist’s work in 2024. 

—Eileen Kinsella