Glen Baxter (born 4 March 1944), nicknamed Colonel Baxter, is an English draughtsman and artist, noted for his absurdist drawings and an overall effect often resembling literary nonsense. Born in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

, Baxter was trained at

Leeds College of Art Leeds Arts University is a specialist arts further and higher education institution, based in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a main campus opposite the University of Leeds. History It was founded in 1846 as the Leeds Schoo ...

(1960-5). He was a teacher at the V&A (1967–74). His first solo exhibition was held at

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

's Gotham Book Mart Gallery. Baxter's artwork has appeared in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', '' Vanity Fair'' and ''

The Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

''. His images and their corresponding captions employ art and language inspired by pulp fiction and adventure comics with intellectual jokes and references. His simple line-drawings often feature

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...

s, gangsters, explorers and

schoolchildren A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementar ...

, who utter incongruous intellectual statements regarding art and philosophy. One of his best known satirical works, ''The Impending Gleam'', was first published in 1981. Today the artist lives and works in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. With

Flowers Gallery The Flowers Galleries are two galleries in London (on Cork Street in the West End, and in Shoreditch in the East End) and a third in the Chelsea district of New York City. The three galleries represent over 60 artists. History The first F ...

, Baxter has had a number of solo shows including ''Furtive Loomings'' (2017), ''Tofu Walk With Me'' (2015), and ''Glen Baxter: The Soul in Torment, Parts I & II'' (2012). In August 2014, Baxter was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue. In May 2016, the New York Review of Books published a collection of Baxter's work including popular selections from his career as well as new cartoons titled, ''Almost Completely Baxter: New and Selected Blurtings''.

Bibliography

*''Atlas'' (1979) *''5 x 5'' (1981) with Ian Breakwell, Ivor Cutler, Anthony Earnshaw, Jeff Nuttall *''The Impending Gleam'' (1981) *''His Life: The Years of Struggle'' (1983) (translated as ''Zijn leven, de jaren van strijd'', 1986) *''Atlas, Le dernier terrain vague '' (1983) *''The Impending Gleam'' Thames & Hudson, (1985) *''Jodpurs in the Quantocks (1986) *''The Festive Ordeal'' De Harmonie Amsterdam 1986 *''L'heure du thé'' (1990) *''Welcome to the Weird World of Glen Baxter'' (1989) *''Ma vie: le jeunes années'' (1990) *''The Billiard Table Murders'' (1990) *''Glen Baxter Returns to Normal'' (1992) (translated as ''Retour à la normale'', 1992) *''The Collected Blurtings of Baxter'' (1994) *''The Further Blurtings of Baxter'' (1994) *''The Wonder Book of Sex'' (1995) (translated as ''Wundersame Welt der Erotik'', 1996, and ''Le livre de l'amour'', 1997). *''Glen Baxter's Gourmet Guide'' (1997) *''Blizzards of Tweed'' (1999) *''Meurtres a la Table de Billiard'' (2000) *''Trundling Grunts'' (2002) *''The Unhinged World of Glen Baxter'' (2002) *''Loomings Over the Suet'' (2004) *''Le safari historico-gastronomique en Poitou-Charentes''. Poitiers: Éditions Atlantique, 2010. . In French and English. Preface by Alberto Manguel.

References

External links

Official site

Glen Baxter Gallery Website

Comic House portfolio of Glen Baxter

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baxter, Glen 1944 births Living people Alumni of Leeds Arts University Artists from Leeds English cartoonists British surrealist artists The New Yorker cartoonists Surreal comedy