Public collection

Arts Councill of Great Britain (UK)

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (FR)

Chase Manhattan Bank New York (USA)

De Young Museum, San Francisco (USA)

FNAC – Fond National d’Art Contemporain (FR)

FRAC Poitou-Charentes (FR)

FRAC Picardie (FR)

New York Public Library (USA)

Southampton University (UK)

Tate Gallery, London (UK)

Victoria & Albert Museum, London (UK)

Introduction

Popular for his surreal and absurd narrative drawings, it is after having discovered Surrealism and Dadaism (de Chirico, Picabia, Magritte, Ernst, Beckett, Roussel...) that Glen Baxter developed an appetence for non-sense, the incongruous, irony. He adorns his drawings with comments to achieve a discrepancy, a common incongruity between the text and the image, creating an intense connection between language and its sounds. The burlesque of the depicted situation is answered by the grotesque of a commentary expressed in the most serious way in the world.

“The surrealists used to call it the ‘frisson’, this sudden impression that the ground opens up, that we went too fast, that we were mistaken. (…) It’s a fleeting but very strong sensation, as if the mind momentarily lost balance. Exactly what I’m trying to have those looking at my drawings feel. I’ve always loved these hitches in reality, these slight dizzy spells.” Glen Baxter in Stéphane Jarno, «Les dadas du Colonel», Télérama n° 3077, 2009

Major exhibitions of Glen Baxter’s drawings and paintings have been held in New York, London, San Francisco, Munich, Tokyo, Sydney and Paris where his work have been regularly exhibited (Galerie Martine et Thibault de La Châtre). His work is in the collections of the Tate Gallery and V&A Museum in London as well as in museums and private collections around the world. Glen Baxter is the author of numerous books, published in English and French (Edition Hoëbeke). His publications in magazines includes The New Yorker, The Independent on Sunday, Vanity Fair, Le Monde…

Born in Leeds (GB) in 1944, Glen Baxter lives and works in London.