An unusual thought provoking pop-up exhibition is on view at Fox Gallery NYC: the mixed media paintings /anthropomorphic masks by Atara Baker, an Israeli born and California based artist who spent over a decade in South Africa. The curator Annette Benda-Fox relates Baker's work to the recent exhibition of Picasso's sculptural work at MoMA "Walking through MoMA’s historic Picasso sculpture exhibit last month, I was once again struck by the impact non-western (African, Oceanic) art exerted upon modern art in the 20th century. From Picasso’s revolutionary Les Demoiselles d’Avignon through Brancusi, Paul Klee, Giacometti, David Smith, Henry Moore, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Motherwell, Keith Haring, John Michel-Basquiat, Antoni Tapies, and others, primal energy has imbued the artist’s vision and work. I first observed this while cataloging African and Oceanic art for Sotheby's. I was deeply affected by the works' emotional power, beauty and symbolism.
