Mowry Baden

Mowry Baden
Born	Mowry Thacher Baden (1936-01-17) January 17, 1936 (age 88) Los Angeles, California
Nationality	Canadian, American
Occupation	Artist
Known for	Sculpture
Awards	Guggenheim Fellowship Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts

Mowry Thacher Baden (born January 17, 1936) is an American sculptor who has lived and worked in Canada since 1975. He is known for his gallery-based kinaesthetic sculptures and for his public sculpture, both of which require a strong element of bodily interaction on the part of the viewer.

Life

Baden was born January 17, 1936, in Los Angeles, California,^[1] to Frank Baden and Jane Louise Thacher.

A 1954 graduate of Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California, Baden studied at Pomona College (BA, 1958) and Stanford University (MFA, 1965).^[1][2][3] He has practiced sculpture for nearly 50 years and has taught sculpture at Raymond College, Pomona College, UBC, and the University of Victoria, from which he retired in 1997. Artist Chris Burden was one of his students.^[4]

In 1958, he married Gretchen Fosburgh Kaiser, granddaughter of industrialist Henry J. Kaiser.^[5] They divorced in 1973.^[6]

He is married to actor-director-writer Judith McDowell. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia, where he continues to produce sculpture and public art.

Art practice

Baden is known for his sculptures that allow the viewer to generate kinaesthetic experiences.^[7][8] To this end, his gallery-based works often use mechanisms or physical components that encourage viewer interaction.^[9][10]

Public artworks

• Pavilion, Rock and Shell, 2005, Victoria, BC, Canada^[11]
• Fulcrum of Vision, 2003, Vancouver, BC^[12]
• The Wall of Death, 1993 (with Colin Baden), Seattle, Washington
• Silage Beach, The Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA^[13]
• Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC^[14]
• Justin Herman Plaza, San Francisco, CA^[15]
• Artpark, Lewiston, NY (with Michael Brewster)^[16]
• University of California

Exhibitions

Baden's exhibitions include:

• Galeria Excelsior, Mexico City (1957)^[17]
• Galleria Pogliani, Rome (1959)^[18]
• Museum of Modern Art, New York (1960)^[19]
• Cobar Gallery, New York (1962)
• University of Mexico, Mexico City (1963)^[18]
• San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco (1968)
• The Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver (1972,1979 and a retrospective in 2019)
• Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles (1975)^[20]
• National Gallery of Canada, (2008)^[21]
• Benjamin Diaz Gallery, Toronto (2007 and 2009)
• Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver (2019)

Awards

In 2006, Baden was awarded a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts.^[22] In 2015, he was the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship.^[23][24]

Teaching practice

Baden taught at Stanford University, University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA)^[25] and Pomona College^[26] at the Claremont Graduate University.^[27] In 1971, he left California for Canada.^[28] There, he taught at the University of British Columbia's main Vancouver campus followed by a tenured position at the University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia from 1975 to 1997. Among his past students are several important contemporary artists, including Chris Burden,^[26][29] James Carl, Catherine MacLean, Barbara Fischer, Bill Burns, Lewis Baltz, Jessica Stockholder^[30] and Kim Adams.

Collections

Baden's work is included in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada,^[1] the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego,^[31] the Pomona College Museum of Art,^[32] the Vancouver Art Gallery,^[33] the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal,^[34] [[the Oakland Art Museum, Oakland CA, the University of California, Berkeley CA, the Glenbow Art Museum, Calgary AB, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Science Center, Lubbock TX, the Art Bank, Canada Council, Ottawa, the Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC, the Exploratorium, San Francisco, the Addison Gallery, Andover MA, University of California, Santa Barbara, the American Psychological Association, Washington DC]].^[4]

References

1. "Mowry Baden fonds: Finding Aid". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
2. "Future Cities". www.virtualcities.mcmaster.ca.
3. Roger Matuz (1997). Contemporary Canadian artists. Gale Canada. ISBN 978-1-896413-46-4.
4. "Mowry Baden". mowrybaden.com. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
5. "Wedding Revealed". The San Francisco Examiner. June 24, 1958. p. 18. Retrieved March 26, 2024.
6. Washington, U.S., Divorce Records, 1968–2017
7. Vanguard. Vancouver Art Gallery. 1987.
8. Andreas Broeckmann; Gunalan Nadarajan (2008). Place Studies in Art, Media, Science and Technology: Historical Investigations on the Sites and the Migration of Knowledge. VDG. ISBN 978-3-89739-611-1.
9. Walk Ways. Independent Curators International. 1 January 2002. ISBN 978-0-916365-65-3.
10. Mowry Baden; Montgomery Art Gallery (2001). Freckled gyres: sculpture. Montgomery Gallery, Pomona College. ISBN 9780915478729.
11. "Pavilion, Rock and Shell". Artsvictoria.ca. City of Victoria. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
12. "City of Vancouver Public Art Registry".
13. "Exploratorium Exhibit Cross Reference". www.exploratorium.edu.
14. Kastor, Elizabeth. "HOME IS WHAT THE ART IS". Washington Post. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
15. Re:view: Newsletter of the Friends of Photography. The Friends. 1992.
16. Sandra Q. Firmin (27 October 2010). Artpark 1974-1984. Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 9781616890193.
17. Funk Bastler (1967). Funk. University of California Press. pp. 50–. GGKEY:QB2B4WR8Q56.
18. Robert Youds; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (2006). Mowry Baden and Roland Brener: thirty years in Victoria. Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. ISBN 9780888852267.
19. Selection 1968: Recent Accessions to the University Art Collections: Exhibition at the University Art Gallery, 6 Aug.-15 Sept. 1968. University Art Museum. 1968.
20. Artforum. Artforum. 1975.
21. Josée Drouin-Brisebois (2008). Caught in the Act: The Viewer as Performer. National Gallery of Canada. ISBN 978-0-88884-855-0.
22. Baldisera, Lisa. "Mowry Baden – Essay". Governor General's Award in Media and Visual Arts. Canada Council. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
23. "Mowry Baden". Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
24. Sandals, Leah. "Mowry Baden & Mark Ruwedel Win Guggenheim Fellowships". Canadian Art. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
25. Thomas Albright (1985). Art in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-1980: An Illustrated History. University of California Press. pp. 259–. ISBN 978-0-520-05193-5.
26. Chris Burden; Anne Ayres; Paul Schimmel (April 1988). Chris Burden: a twenty-year survey. Newport Harbor Art Museum. ISBN 9780917493119.
27. Michael Fallon (18 August 2014). Creating the Future: Art and Los Angeles in the 1970s. Counterpoint. pp. 123–. ISBN 978-1-61902-404-5.
28. Sculpture. International Sculpture Center. July 2003.
29. "Chris Burden - Laguna Art Museum". Laguna Art Museum.
30. Baird, Daniel. "Jessica Stockholder: Stand-Up Performance". Canadian Art. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
31. "I Walk The Line – Works – eMuseum". collection.mcasd.org.
32. "Pomona College Museum of Art". embarkweb1.campus.pomona.edu.
33. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
34. "Mowry Baden – MAC Montréal".

External links

• Official site
• Mowry Baden fonds at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario