Page 50 - Studio International - January 1965

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fortable, but altogether devoid of irrelevancies; paint­
ings, drawings, and sculpture reign in a benevolent
monarchy, never oppressive, but absolute as a Hohen­
zollern's. It is in this atmosphere that Mr. Baker moves,
at ease and secure among his possessions.
While his background by no means presages his
present and future as a collector of vanguard art, there
is a certain inexorability about his progress. Of his
earliest visit to Europe in 1 91 6 he recalls most vividly
museums; his family library was well-stocked with
books on contemporary art and to these he naturally
gravitated; he responded with wonder to an early
exhibit of Matisse. Nevertheless, he took his degree
at Yale in English Literature in 1935. and when he
matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, as a Rhodes
Scholar the same year it was to read in International
Relations. At Oxford he acquired his first art: four
Medici prints (a Cezanne, a Monet, a Titian, and a
Vermeer). On leaving Oxford in 1938, he pursued the
career of journalist until 1 940, when he joined the staff
of American Ambassador to Spain Alexander W.
Weddell, as private secretary. While he had little time
for collecting or even for museums during those
dangerous and tragic years. he recalls with particular
pleasure the Goyas hanging in the Embassy drawing
room and a visit to the studio of the painter Zuloaga.
With the entry of the United States into the war,
Mr. Baker returned to Washington as a foreign affairs
specialist in the Division Df Spedal lnforma1ron. It-was
about this time that he began to buy, albeit very
modestly, original paintings. His first were landscapes
by Adolph Dehn and John Whorf. During the war
years Washington was vastly overcrowded and
Mr. Baker shared lodgings with a group of English
officers, who, he recalls good humouredly, insisted he
keep his paintings in his bedroom where nobody else
would be forced to look at them. With the peace, he
found himself on assignment to Paris, where. once
again, he fell into the habit of seeking out art. In a
single afternoon he acquired original etchings by
Goya, Gauguin. and Signac. In a small way these
represented his real beginnings as a collector.
In 1948, Mr. Baker retired from Government to devote
himself to writing and to collecting. Collecting carried
the day. It was about this time, too. that he was
befriended by Franz Bader, the well known Washington
book and art dealer. It was Bader who encouraged his
interest in the work of younger American artists. In the
early 1950s, when Baker moved to New York per­
manently, he was already an experienced viewer. It
remained only for the excitement of the New York
art scene to stimulate him into action. They were
portentous days; the European masters were, after long
absence. again in the galleries. More important still, to
a man just beginning a major collection. a whole new
generation of artists were arriving, with debuts occurring
weekly. Baker responded with enthusiasm and acted
on his responses. In 1954, he acquired his first complete
abstractions, an oil by Jose Guerrero, and a collage
by Kurt Schwitters. It was in 1954, too (Mr. Baker refers
to it as his 'year of decision') that he established the
form that his collection was to follow. At that time he
determined that he would devote himself exclusively to
work completed after 1 945. While the year 1 945 is an
arbitrary date and Mr. Baker would be the last to claim
that it marked a clearly defined beginning, it at least
heralded the return to peace and an era during which,
something important was beginning to happen in art.
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