Paintings and recollections of Ireland from the legendary American minimalist

Collecting new paintings and writings by Amsterdam-based American painter Jo Baer (born 1929), Up Close in the Land of the Giants was created as a deliberate sibling to Baer’s 2013 exhibition catalog In the Land of the Giants, which was published on the occasion of the artist’s eponymously titled dual exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Ludwig Museum Cologne.

This new volume echoes the 2013 book in layout and design but offers readers a deeper look into the artist’s own thinking on her paintings and the reasons behind the sources she has chosen to reference in her compositions. The catalog is wide-ranging in its subject matter and is organized in sections that move between analysis of specific series of paintings to chapters that delve into bodies of research from fields as diverse as anthropology and archaeology to astronomy and geography, all of which have informed Baer’s work.