Donald Baechler Print Released as Vera List Art Project 50th Anniversary Celebration Commission

The Lincoln Center Vera List Art Project celebrates its 50^th anniversary in 2012.  It was established in 1962 by philanthropists Vera and Albert List as a way to both support the visual arts and raise funds for Lincoln Center. Since the inception of the program, Lincoln Center has commissioned more than 125 major artists of the time to create works available for sale to the public.  

The latest commission, by American artist Donald Baechler, launches the Project’s 50^th Anniversary commemoration. Titled Lincoln Center Globe, 2011, the 47’ X 36’ print on Lanaquarelle paper, is composed of 40 colors/screens and is quintessential Donald Baechler: a crowd of faces collected and archived over the years make their appearance, layered behind an iconic globe image, one of the artist’s favorite themes for the past several years. Lincoln Center Globe, 2011 is available in a limited-edition of 72 prints. 

Two additional commissions are planned for 2012: from the American artists Lorna Simpson and Barbara Kruger.  In addition, to mark the 50^th anniversary, a selection of prints from the Vera List Art Project will be featured in a free exhibition at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, which will run from August 30 to October 27, 2012.  Other anniversary events are planned and will be announced at a later date. 

Donald Baechler’s print, and all of the prints from the Vera List Art Project are available for view on Lincoln Center’s website. Visit art.lincolncenter.org/ to view the complete collection and to purchase prints and posters.  You may also view them by appointment, by emailing awilliams@lincolncenter.org or calling 212.875.5061. 

“I always felt that if people’s sensibilities were awakened, they would seek to make the whole city a more amenable place in which to live.”  That’s what the visionary arts patron Vera List said in a 1973 interview for the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.  List, who was a painter and sculptor, believed that the ultimate way to awaken the senses was through visual art.  And she made her vision a reality when, with her husband Albert, she gave seed money for an endowment to create and support visual art at the new arts complex that would become Lincoln Center.  The couple also was responsible for some of Lincoln Center’s iconic public artworks, such as Henry Moore’s monumental two-piece sculpture in the reflecting pool on the Millstein Terrace.  The first poster was commissioned in fall of 1962 from Ben Shahn to mark the opening of Philharmonic (now, Avery Fisher) Hall.  Premium, limited-edition prints were introduced in 1970. Today, the Vera List Art Project is a collection of more than 200 commissioned fine-art prints and posters by a range of artists representing many of the major movements of the 20^th and 21^st centuries, including Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, HeLen Frankenthaler, Chuck Close, Jim Dine, and Gerhard Richter.  Limited-edition works from the Project have been acquired by notable corporations, private collectors, and museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and London’s Tate Modern.  A selection of prints is on display in the main lobby of Avery Fisher Hall, as well as the lower-level art gallery space.

Remarking on the significance of the collection, Karen Davidson, Director of Visual Art, Lincoln Center explains, “With 127 artists and counting in the collection, the Lincoln Center Vera List Art Project remains at the forefront of art trends, commissioning fresh, original works by a who’s who of the contemporary art world. We’re proud to mark this important milestone with three important commissions and an exhibition for the 50^th anniversary.”