1929

Born in Seattle, Washington, USA on August 7th, as Josephine Gail Kleinberg.

1946-1949

Educated at University of Washington, Seattle. Majors in biology and takes first year painting and drawing art courses.

1950

Works during spring and summer in Kibbutz in Israel. Moves to New York City.

1950-1953

Attends the New School for Social Research, New York, NY, and studies with the Graduate Faculty in Gestalt Psychology.

1953

Marries Richard Baer, a television writer, and moves to Los Angeles, CA.

1955

December, birth of son Joshua.

1957

Begins experimenting in an Abstract-Expressionist style. Work characterized by strong light-dark contrasts.

Associates peripherally with the Walter Hopps-Ed Kienholz run Ferus Gallery.

1959

Starts living with John Wesley in California.

1960

Paints in a reductive, hard-edge style.

June: returns to New York City. Marries John Wesley, first in Mexico and then again in New York.

1962

Summer: begins first mature series of work. Meets Dan Flavin and Donald Judd.

1962-1963

Graph paper paintings and drawings, and Korean Paintings.

1964

Series of large squares, small squares, vertical rectangles, with fully enclosing border. Participates in a group show at the Kaymar Gallery,

Eleven Artists, organized by Dan Flavin; her first NY group show (March 31st-April 14th).

1966

Diptych and triptych grouping in different hanging configurations: horizontals and verticals both flanking and stacked.

First NYC solo (February 12th-March 14th). She showed twelve paintings; later she added one painting more to each of the four kinds in the series.

Participates in the Systemic Painting show in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (September-November). For the catalogue of the Systemic Painting show Baer writes a statement.

1966-1967

Writes Dialogues with other artists.

1967

Stations of the Spectrum. Six paintings with grey grounds.

1968

Double Bar Series with grey backgrounds.

1969

Wraparound paintings, grey ground. Begins experimenting with diagonal and curved forms.

Awarded National Endowment for the Arts Grant. Galeri Ricke, Koln (January 8th-February 24th).

1969-1970

Teaches at the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY. Writes on "Mach Bands', a perceptual edge phenomenon. The article was published in Aspen Magazine, a 'cutting edge' review including recordings of avant-garde music, shaped poetry, etc. in it's design; this issue was edited by Dan Graham.

1970

Wraparound paintings on white grounds. Completed first painting incorporating diagonal curved forms.

Joins Orchid Society and writes two articles on the subject of Orchids. Botanical Latin is used to title paintings, for example H. Arcuata.

Noah Goldowsky Gallery - Richard Bellamy, New York, NY (January 3rd-31st).

Gordon Locksley-Shea Gallery, Minneapolis, MI (March-April 10th).

Galerie Ricke, Koln (November 13th-December 10th).

1971

Paintings from '62-'63, School of Visual arts, New York, NY. (March 9th-April 14th).

Is invited to participate in the 1972 American women artist show in the Kunsthaus, Hamburg. Her proposal to put a statement, written by her, on the wall instead of a painting, is refused.

1972

Double Bar Series, white grounds. Warren Benedik Gallery, New York, NY (April 30th -May 1st; sales benefit exhibition).

Lo Giudice Gallery, New York, NY (April 29th -May 24th).

Galerie Ricke, Koln (January 13th-February 8th).

Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (April 17-May).

Publication by Brooke Alexander, Inc., New York, NY, of Cadmos' Thicket, an inkless intaglio hand coloured with oil, 101.5x76cm. Edition of 30.

1974

Galleria Toselli, Milano (January 15th-February).

Paintings 1962-1972, Daniel Weiberg Gallery, San Francisco, CA (February 7th-March 2nd).

Publication of Cardinations, a portfolio of nine screen prints, in an Arabic edition of 75 and a Roman numeral edition of 15, by Brooke Alexander, inc., New York, NY.

1975

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (May 1 - July 13), Catalogue, text Barbara Haskell.

Moves to Ireland and lives in the twelfth-century Norman Smarmore castle, near Ardee, Co. Louth, a legendary pre-historic site of a battle between Cuchulann and Ferdia. Continues to develop the changes in the formal content of her work started in New York, painting in a quasi-figurative manner - which she then described as radical figuration - where there is no pre-eminence of image or space.

1977

Lisson Gallery, London.

Max Protetch Gallery, Washington, DC.

Paintings 1962-1974, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, (October 16th-November 20th); Catalogue, text David Elliott, Rudi Fuchs.

[Show travelling to the Scottish Arts Council Gallery, Edinburgh (January 9th- February 4th), The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity college, Dublin (23rd February-19th March 1978), and as Schilderijen 1962-1975, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, (April 12th-May 7th)]

Writes 'To and Fro and Back and Forth: A Dialogue with Seamus Coleman'; it was a reaction to a request by Art Monthly for their issue devoted to Ireland. Coleman and I agreed to send one another ten questions (blind) to be answered. The resulting dialogue ranged from tax-exemptions for artists to dressage for everybody.

1978

Starts working together with the English artist Bruce Robbins with whom she collaborated until 1984.

Oliver Dowling Gallery, Dublin.

Galerie Rolf Ricke, Koln.

1980

Lisson Gallery, London (June 4th-July 5th).

112 Workshop, New York, NY (In collaboration with Bruce Robbins; March 11th-22nd).

Galerie Rolf Ricke, Koln. (In collaboration with Bruce Robbins; May 30th-June 20th).

Oliver Dowling Gallery, Dublin. (In collaboration with Bruce Robbins; July 26th-August 16th).

1982

Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY (In collaboration with Bruce Robbins; February).

Lisson Gallery, London (June 4th-July 5th). (In collaboration with Bruce Robbins, February 23rd-March 20th).

Riverside Studios, London (In collaboration with Bruce Robbins; April 6th-May 2nd).

Summer: Moves to London.

1983

Jo Baer: 'I am no longer an abstract artist', a polemical article describing the morbidity of abstraction and its avant-garde along with some prescriptions for the development of a radical figuration to replace it, published in Art in America, no.71, October 1983.

1984

Moves to Amsterdam where she continues to paint in a way she refers to as ' radical figuration'.

Oliver Dowling Gallery, Dublin (In collaboration with Bruce Robbins; February 23rd-March 16th).

Ouverture, Castello di Rivoli, Torino, Italy

1986

Paintings from the Past Decade 1975-1985, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, (January 10th-February 9th).

1987

Art Galaxay and Oil & Steel Gallery, NY.

1988

Galerie Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam (May 3rd-June 18th).

1989

Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL (October 13th-November 11th) [Minimal Paintings].

1990

Paintings: Now and Then, Galerie Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam (June 2nd-June 30th).

Writes and publishes ' Jo Baer. Red, White and Blue Gelding Falling to Its Right; 'Tis Ill Pudling in the Cockatrice Den; The Rod Reversed'. Three texts using the colours and aspects of three paintings as springboards for disquitations on neighbours, geography, the leopard's spots, Minoan and Etruscan magic, Aztec palaces, etc. The texts do not describe the paintings, rather they function as an alternate and parallel work.

1993

Paley/Levy Gallery, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA (March 3rd-April 4th); publication by Jo Baer on the occasion of the exhibition.

Jo Baer. When Thou Cometh To Woman by Jo Baer and Bruce Robbins, Amsterdam.

Palimpsests. A selection of paintings drawings, 1963-1993, Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller, Otterlo (May 29-August 1)

[Minimal and Radical Figuration Paintings, prints].

1995

Jo Baer. Paintings from the '60s and early '70s. Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY (December 2-January 13)
Catalogue, text Leslie Tonkonow.

1996

Starts writing 'Reappraising the Parthenon', a work-in-progress.

1997

Writes for the group exhibition "The Pursuit of Painting", Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (June-November 1997) in which she participates.

1999

One-person exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (January 9th-February 21st) showing Minimal work and 'image-constellations'.
Catalogue, text by Jo Baer, Marja Bloem, Marianne Brouwer and Rudi Fuchs.

“Editions,”Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam, Mar--Apr..
“Decades in Dialogue: Perspectives on the MCA Collection,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Feb 27.
“Drawings from the 1960s,” Curt Marcus Gallery, NYC, Apr30-May. 29
“The American Century: Art and Culture 1900-2000,” Whitney Museum, NYC, Sept-Feb(2000).
“The Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection of Modern Art,” Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Mar4 May9
“Der Künstler als Kurator; Günter Umberg,”Galerie Nåcht St. Stephan, Wien, sept.21-Oct 31.

2000

“Drawing is Another Kind of Language,” Connecticut College, New London, Jan 8-Mar 12.
“Contemporary American Drawings from the Sarah-Ann & Werner H. Kramarsky Collection,”
           Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Jan 31 -Mar 25.
           Mary and Leigh Block Museum, Evanston, Sept 22-Dec.10.
           The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Apr.20-June 10, 2001.
“50 Masterworks from the Post-War Period,” Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston,Mar 24.
“Body of Painting,” Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Jul 21-Sept. 17.
“Poésie, Love, Sneeuwwitje, Pfft...” Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, Arnhem, Jul 22-Sept.10.
“Peinture: trois regards,” Les Filles du Calvaire,Paris, Sept.7-Oct.14.
“Von Edgar Degas bis Gerhard Richter,” Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Sept.8-Nov.19.

2001

“Von Edgar Degas-bis Gerhard Richter,” Nationlgalerie Prague, Palais Kinsky, Prague, Dec 15-Mar 25.
           Rupertinum, Museum für Moderne und Zeitgenössiche Kunst, Salzburg, Apr 7-May 20.
           Westfälisches Landsmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster, Germany, Jun 3-Aug 26.
           Neues Museum, Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design, Nürnberg, Dec 7-Feb 24.
“Art Basel,” Hal 2.1, Stand K4, Paul Andriesse Gallery, Basel,May 13-May 18.
“Beau Monde:Toward a Redeemed Cosmopolitanism,” Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, Jul 14-Jan6: 2002
“Jo Baer,” Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, Sept-Oct 13.
“Unbreakable,” Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, Dec 15-Jan 13.

2002

“Cycle Peinture: Trois Regards,” Les Filles du Calvaire, Brussels, Jan 25-Mar 2.
“Art Basel,” Hal 2.1, Stand K4, Paul Andriesse Gallery, Basel, Jun 11- Jun17.
“Fall Show,” Paula Cooper Gallery, NYC, Sept 3-Oct 12.
“Paintings from the 60’s,” Paula Cooper Gallery, NYC,12 Dec-18 Jan
“Raum für Malerie, The Painting Room,” Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Mar 24-Oct 28.

2003

“The Summer of 2003,” Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam, Jun 7-Aug 30.”
“Selections from the Lewitt Collection,” New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain,July 23- Aug 27
“Primary Matters: the Minimalist Sensibility, 1959 to the Present,” SFMOMA, San Franciso, Nov 8-Jan 11,’04

2004

“A Minimalist Future? Art as Object 1958-1968,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Mar 14-Aug 2
“Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form 1940s-70s,” Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angelis, June xx

Paintings in public collections

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y.

Arts Council of Great Britain, London, England

Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia

Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Md.

Chase Manhattan Bank, NYC, N.Y.

Fort Worth Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Gemeentemuseum Arnhem, Arnhem, NL.

Haags Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, NL.

Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, West Germany

Kunstmusem Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland.

LA. County Museum, LA Calif

Ludwig Coll., Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln, West Germany

Ludwig Coll., Suermondt Museum, Aachen, West Germany

Levi-Strauss Coll., San Francisco, Calif

Michener Coll., University of Texas at Austin, Texas

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Ill.

Museum of Contemporary Art, L.A.

Museum of Modern Art, NYC, N.Y.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Neuberger Museum, State University of New York at Purchase, N.Y.

Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, Calif.

Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst, The Hague, NL.

Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, NL.

Saatchi Coll., London, England

San Francisco MOMA, S.F. Calif.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC, N.Y.

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL.

Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, NL.

Tate Gallery, London, England

Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, NY.

University of North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.