Picasso’s CMYK Period, 2018 - 2023

Aluminum printing plates, emulsion, ink, solvent
70 x 68.25 in.
“At some point, probably in the Swinging Sixties, Pablo Picasso said something along the lines of “What good are computers? They can only give you answers.” I included this quote in President: “Why?” — my 2018 limited-edition tabloid newspaper — to emphasize the questioning nature that is essential to making art. In Picasso’s CMYK Period, the influential artist's words play hide and seek on the printing plates amid primary-colored amalgams of abstract expressionist smears, pop-art Benday dots, and Fluxus happenstance, continuing my lifelong obsession with mixing visuals and text: how words appear and what they say.”
Pocket MonstersTM Strobe, 2000
Gouache on color laser copy and collage
16 3/4 x 10 7/8 in.
God, What An Ignoble End, 2000
Gouache and pencil on color laser copy and barrier tape
16 3/8 x 10 3/4 in.
Fat Men and Little Boys, 1999
Acrylic, gouache and oil on color laser copy and collage
16 1/4 x 10 3/4 in.
And Where a Flabby Devil, 2000
Gouache, oil and pencil on color laser copy and collage
16 3/8 x 10 1/4 in.
Will Teach Us All How To Play The Blues, 1999
Gouache, pencil, oil and circuit sticker on color laser copy
17 x 11 in.
R.C. BAKER
Lives and works in Bronx, New York
ARTIST BIO
R.C. Baker (b. 1960) is an artist and writer who lives and works in the Bronx, New York. He is a New York Foundation for the Arts Painting Fellow, and his artwork has been exhibited at Jennifer Baahng Gallery, Zone: Contemporary Art, the Drawing Center, White Columns, the Center for Book Arts, and other venues in New York City, as well as internationally. He is the editor-in-chief of the Village Voice and has written hundreds of reviews, numerous features, and cover stories on art, popular culture, and politics. His essays have appeared on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times, in exhibition catalogs, and other publications. In 2016, Baker was awarded a Creative Capital I Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for Short-Form Writing.
Related
The Brooklyn Rail reviews RC Baker’s solo exhibition, “…and Nixon’s coming” the draft
