Religion

 

Lamar G. Baker

  1908 - 1994 (biography)

1936  

lithograph 

11 1/2 x 8 11/16" image size 

pencil, lower right; initialed in stone, lower right 

not stated 

pencil titled and dated, lower left; dated in the stone, lower right; verso in artist's hand: "Unlimited until Jan 1, 1937" 

 

cream Rives wove 

published 

artist 

23037 

SOLD

Baker depicts symbols of Christianity gathering dust and spiderwebs, as though seen through the lens of time. A carved Jesus is split through the middle by a tiny woodpecker, who is perched on the edge of a radio, symbolizing perhaps the destructive nature of commercialized Evangelicalism. Scrolls and tomes are bedecked in spiderwebs and wormholes riddle the wooden architectural details of medieval churches. Baker did not shrink from exploring difficult and often controversial ideas, using art as a platform to critique the hypocrisy of social norms and prejudices. While his work often falls into the Surrealist catgory, it was often less veiled, and more pointed, than many of his contemporaries.