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IAIN BAXTER&
IAIN BAXTER&
Born	Iain Baxter; November 16, 1936 (age 88); Middlesbrough, England
Nationality	English-born Canadian
Known for	Conceptual artist, photographer
Movement	Conceptual art
Awards	Officer of the Order of Canada (2003); Companion of the Order of Canada (2019); Member of the Order of British Columbia (2007)

IAIN BAXTER&^[1] CC OOnt OBC RCA FRSC (born Iain Baxter on November 16, 1936) is a Canadian conceptual artist. BAXTER& is recognized internationally as an early practitioner of conceptual art; the Canada Council Molson Prize committee stated in 2005 that his "highly regarded conceptual installations and projects, as well as his photography, have earned him the label of 'the Marshall McLuhan of the visual arts."^[2] BAXTER& was co-president with Ingrid Baxter of the conceptual project and legally incorporated business N.E. Thing Co., founded in 1966.^[3] BAXTER& is Professor Emeritus at the School of Visual Arts University of Windsor^[4] and a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.^[5]

Early life

BAXTER& was born in Middlesbrough, England in 1936; his family emigrated to Canada in 1937 and settled in Calgary.^[6] In 1959, he received a BSc from the University of Idaho and completed a Master of Education at the University of Idaho. BAXTER& studied art and aesthetics in Japan in 1961 and completed an MFA at Washington State University at Pullman in 1964.^[6]^[7]

N.E. Thing Co.

Founded in 1966 by IAIN and Ingrid Baxter, N.E. Thing Co. was established as a conceptual vehicle that viewed the art world as "parallel [to] consumer culture."^[8] N.E. Thing Co. was incorporated under the Companies Act in 1969.^[8] Focusing on an interdisciplinary practice and using photography, site-specific performances and installation, N.E. Thing Co. is seen as a "key catalyst and influence for Vancouver photoconceptualism"^[9] and is considered a precursor to the Vancouver School.^[10] N.E. Thing Co. created some of the earliest photoconceptual works to display a tendency to use photography to document "idea-works and their sites, as language games and thematic inventories and as reflective investigations of the social and architectural landscape."^[11]

In 1969, N.E. Thing Company Ltd. produced 'Reflected Landscape: The Arctic Sun' as 35 mm slides, lithograph and transparencies. The image, which is now in a private collection, was taken in Inuvik with a mirror reflecting the Arctic sun on the arctic tundra.^[12]

N.E. Thing Co. disbanded in 1978 when Iain and Ingrid ended their relationship.^[9]

Name change

In 2005, Iain Baxter legally changed his name to IAIN BAXTER& (pronounced Baxter-and), in part to reflect his fascination for the ampersand as a typographic mark but also to reflect what he values in a "non-authorial take on art production... an unending collaboration with the viewer and the means to question the artist's role." He has created a series of sculptural works utilizing the ampersand, including And, a 10-foot inflatable silver version in 2008.^[13] ^[14]

Awards

1978: Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award^[15]
2003: Officer of the Order of Canada^[16]
2004: Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts,^[17]
2004: Member of the Order of Ontario.^[18]
2005: Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize
2006: Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the Art Gallery of Ontario.^[19]
2007: Member of the Order of British Columbia.^[20]
2013: Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada^[21]
2019: Companion of the Order of Canada^[22]

References

^ "Iain Baxter& C.V." (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
^ "The Canada Council for the Arts - Iain Baxter and Ramsay Cook win Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes". Canadacouncil.ca. 2005-04-28. Archived from the original on June 29, 2007.
^ "Canadian Art Online, Nov. 6, 2008. Accessed May 24, 2011". Canadianart.ca. Archived from the original on 2011-09-30. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
^ "University of Windsor". Uwindsor.ca. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
^ "Members since 1880". Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 2011-05-26.
^ ^a ^b Baxter, Iain (1998). Iain Baxter: Products, Place, Phenomenon. Windsor, Ont.: Art Gallery of Windsor. p. 42. ISBN 0-919837-56-5.
^ Knight, Derek (1995). N.E. Thing Co.: The Ubiquitous Concept. Oakville, Ont.: Oakville Galleries. p. 29. ISBN 0-921027-56-7.
^ ^a ^b Knight, De (1995). N.E. Thing Co.: The Ubiquitous Concept. Oakville, Ont.: Oakville Galleries. p. 5. ISBN 0-921027-56-7.
^ ^a ^b Knight, Derek (1995). N.E. Thing Co.: The Ubiquitous Concept. Oakville, Ont.: Oakville Galleries. p. 6. ISBN 0-921027-56-7.
^ Wallace, Ian. "Photo Conceptual Art in Vancouver." Thirteen Essays on Photography. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, 1990. 94. ISBN 0-88884-557-X
^ Wallace, Ian. "Photo Conceptual Art in Vancouver." Thirteen Essays on Photography. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, 1990. 96-7. ISBN 0-88884-557-X
^ Pound, Richard W. (2005). 'Fitzhenry and Whiteside Book of Canadian Facts and Dates'. Fitzhenry and Whiteside.
^ "Iain Baxter&: Ampersand, Mon Amour". Canadian Art. November 6, 2008. Archived from the original on 30 September 2011.
^ Cozzi, Leslie (2012). "IAIN BAXTER& AT Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago". Artforum.
^ "Prizes". Canada Council. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
^ "The Governor General of Canada: Iain Baxter&". Gg.ca. 2002-10-10. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
^ The Canada Council for the Arts (2004-03-17). "The Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts - 2004". Canadacouncil.ca. Archived from the original on 2012-09-05. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
^ Government of Ontario. "MCI - Active Citizenship". www.citizenship.gov.on.ca. Archived from the original on November 28, 2018. Retrieved Mar 20, 2020.
^ "The Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the AGO". Ago.net. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
^ orderbceditor (2009-01-15). "2007 Recipient: Iain Baxter – Vancouver, B.C. & Windsor, Ontario". Orderofbc.gov.bc.ca. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
^ "Search RSC Fellows". Royal Society of Canada. Archived from the original on 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2015-04-16.
^ General, Office of the Secretary to the Governor (2019-06-20). "Governor General Announces 83 New Appointments to the Order of Canada". The Governor General of Canada. Archived from the original on 2019-06-28. Retrieved 2019-06-30.

Bibliography

Baxter, Iain and Ingrid Baxter. You Are Now in the Middle of a N.E. Thing Co. Landscape: Works by Iain and Ingrid Baxter, 1965-1971. Vancouver: The Gallery, 1993. ISBN 0-88865-296-8
BAXTER&, Iain, James Patten and Christophe Domino. Passing Through: IAIN BAXTER& Photographs, 1958-1983. Windsor, Ont.: Art Gallery of Windsor, 2006. ISBN 0-919837-75-1
Knight, Derek, Iain Baxter and Ingrid Baxter. N.E. Thing Co: The Ubiquitous Concept. Oakville, Ont.: Oakville Galleries, 1995. ISBN 0-921027-56-7
Mewburn, Charity. Sixteen Hundred Miles North of Denver. Vancouver: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 1999. ISBN 0-88865-606-8