This catalogue accompanied an exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery, December 2, 1995–January 13, 1996. The exhibition included eleven major works produced from 1963 to 1975. From the early nineteen-sixties to the mid-seventies, when radicalism applied to art and politics with equal fervor, Jo Baer was a central figure in a community that included, among others, Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Carl Andre, and Robert Morris. Working in America during a time marked by cultural materialism and the modern belief in progress through empirical knowledge, these artists advanced an aesthetic that reified the transcendental nature of art.

While featuring most Minimalist characteristics, including simple geometric forms, serial imagery, systemic ideation and the repudiation of illusion, representation, and emotional expression, Baer’s work of the period was defined by its unwavering commitment to the medium of paint.