Writing by Kenneth Baker
Kenneth Baker wrote hundreds of reviews, essays, and profiles as the art critic of the San Francisco Chronicle. After retiring from the Chronicle, he was the San Francisco correspondent for The Art Newspaper, based in London and New York.
Before joining the Chronicle, Kenneth was a contributing editor at Artforum Magazine and the art critic of the Boston Phoenix. His writing also appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, and ARTnews.
Beyond his journalism, Kenneth wrote numerous catalogue essays and two books, The Lightning Field (Yale University Press, 2008) and Minimalism: Art of Circumstance (Abbeville Press, 1988).
Below is a selection of his writing.
The Art Newspaper
• “ ‘Athletic prowess and great ambition’: major Joan Mitchell survey begins its three-stop tour” (2021)
• “Will Covid-19 anxiety colour our perceptions of MoMA’s Donald Judd show?” (2020)
• “Complex, ingenious, emotional: the concluding volumes of Jasper Johns’s catalogues raisonnés” (2019)
• “A dive into Bruce Nauman’s confounding, zigzagging career” (2018)
• “Does Basquiat’s work still burn with youthful energy or has it become a fossil of 1980s New York?” (2018)
• “How to read a Cy Twombly” (2017)
• “A translator from east to west: Kenneth Baker on John McLaughlin in Los Angeles” (2017)
San Francisco Chronicle
• The Monarchy of Fear, by Martha C. Nussbaum (2018)
• Packing My Library, by Alberto Manguel (2018)
• Trevor Paglen: Photographs and documentation, video and electronics (2015)
• Embodiments: Masterworks of African Figurative Sculpture (2015)
• The 10th Shanghai Biennale (2014)
• Keith Haring: The Political Line (2014)
• Wayne Thiebaud: Memory Mountains (2013)
• Interview with William H. Gass (2013)
• Interview with Jasper Johns (2012)
• Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History, by Robert Hughes (2012)
• De Kooning: A Retrospective, at the Museum of Modern Art (2011)
• At the Fights: American Writers on Boxing (2011)
• Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay (2010)
• First-person essay on aikido (2009)
• Chihuly at the de Young (2008)
• Frida Kahlo, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2008)
• Hiroshi Sugimoto: History of History (2007)
• Rembrandt-Caravaggio, at the Van Gogh Museum (2006)
• The Gates of Central Park (2005)
• The new de Young Museum (2005)
• Opening of Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2003)
• Diane Arbus Revelations (2003)
• Interview with Yoko Ono (2002)
• Interview with John Berger (2002)
• Interview with W.G. Sebald (2001)
• Interview with Gordon Parks (2001)
• Profile of Bruce Conner (2000)
• Opening of Tate Modern (2000)
• Cezanne to Van Gogh: The Collection of Dr. Gachet, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1999)
• Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature, by Iris Murdoch (1998)
• Opening of Getty Center (1997)
• Opening of new Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (1996)
• “Bay Area art: Where are we now?” (1995)
Artforum
•“Georgia O’Keeffe: Works on Paper” (1985)
• Max Beckmann—Retrospective (1984)
• Donald Judd: Past Theory (1977)
• Mark Rothko paintings at Marlborough, New York (1971)
The Boston Phoenix
• On Frida Kahlo (1983)
• “Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective,” at MOMA (1980)
• “Every Artist Is an Exile” (1977)
• “Colonials as Modern Masters” (1976)
• “Roy Lichtenstein’s Pop” (1975)
• “Goya’s Witness to the Horrors of War” (1974)
• Essay on art criticism (1973)
Kenneth Baker wrote hundreds of reviews, essays, and profiles as the art critic of the San Francisco Chronicle. After retiring from the Chronicle, he was the San Francisco correspondent for The Art Newspaper, based in London and New York.
Before joining the Chronicle, Kenneth was a contributing editor at Artforum Magazine and the art critic of the Boston Phoenix. His writing also appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, and ARTnews.
Beyond his journalism, Kenneth wrote numerous catalogue essays and two books, The Lightning Field (Yale University Press, 2008) and Minimalism: Art of Circumstance (Abbeville Press, 1988).
Below is a selection of his writing.
The Art Newspaper
• “ ‘Athletic prowess and great ambition’: major Joan Mitchell survey begins its three-stop tour” (2021)
• “Will Covid-19 anxiety colour our perceptions of MoMA’s Donald Judd show?” (2020)
• “Complex, ingenious, emotional: the concluding volumes of Jasper Johns’s catalogues raisonnés” (2019)
• “A dive into Bruce Nauman’s confounding, zigzagging career” (2018)
• “Does Basquiat’s work still burn with youthful energy or has it become a fossil of 1980s New York?” (2018)
• “How to read a Cy Twombly” (2017)
• “A translator from east to west: Kenneth Baker on John McLaughlin in Los Angeles” (2017)
San Francisco Chronicle
• The Monarchy of Fear, by Martha C. Nussbaum (2018)
• Packing My Library, by Alberto Manguel (2018)
• Trevor Paglen: Photographs and documentation, video and electronics (2015)
• Embodiments: Masterworks of African Figurative Sculpture (2015)
• The 10th Shanghai Biennale (2014)
• Keith Haring: The Political Line (2014)
• Wayne Thiebaud: Memory Mountains (2013)
• Interview with William H. Gass (2013)
• Interview with Jasper Johns (2012)
• Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History, by Robert Hughes (2012)
• De Kooning: A Retrospective, at the Museum of Modern Art (2011)
• At the Fights: American Writers on Boxing (2011)
• Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay (2010)
• First-person essay on aikido (2009)
• Chihuly at the de Young (2008)
• Frida Kahlo, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2008)
• Hiroshi Sugimoto: History of History (2007)
• Rembrandt-Caravaggio, at the Van Gogh Museum (2006)
• The Gates of Central Park (2005)
• The new de Young Museum (2005)
• Opening of Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2003)
• Diane Arbus Revelations (2003)
• Interview with Yoko Ono (2002)
• Interview with John Berger (2002)
• Interview with W.G. Sebald (2001)
• Interview with Gordon Parks (2001)
• Profile of Bruce Conner (2000)
• Opening of Tate Modern (2000)
• Cezanne to Van Gogh: The Collection of Dr. Gachet, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1999)
• Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature, by Iris Murdoch (1998)
• Opening of Getty Center (1997)
• Opening of new Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (1996)
• “Bay Area art: Where are we now?” (1995)
Artforum
•“Georgia O’Keeffe: Works on Paper” (1985)
• Max Beckmann—Retrospective (1984)
• Donald Judd: Past Theory (1977)
• Mark Rothko paintings at Marlborough, New York (1971)
The Boston Phoenix
• On Frida Kahlo (1983)
• “Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective,” at MOMA (1980)
• “Every Artist Is an Exile” (1977)
• “Colonials as Modern Masters” (1976)
• “Roy Lichtenstein’s Pop” (1975)
• “Goya’s Witness to the Horrors of War” (1974)
• Essay on art criticism (1973)
