Iain Baxter& (born Iain Baxter on November 16, 1936) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

conceptual artist. Baxter& is recognized internationally as an early practitioner of

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

; the

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal i ...

Molson Prize committee stated in 2005 that his "highly regarded conceptual installations and projects, as well as his photography, have earned him the label of 'the

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. He began his ...

of the visual arts." Baxter& was co-president with

Ingrid Baxter Ingrid Baxter is a conceptual artist, a co-founder of N.E. Thing Co. and founder of Deep Cove Canoe and Kayak Centre in Deep Cove, North Vancouver where she currently operates. Life and career Baxter was born in Spokane, Washington in 1938 un ...

of the conceptual project and legally incorporated business

N.E. Thing Co. N.E. Thing Co. was a Canadian art collective created by married artists Iain and Ingrid Baxter to operate in a commercial-like format for producing work from 1967 to 1978. It was based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Seminal figures in the eme ...

, founded in 1966. Baxter& is Professor Emeritus at the School of Visual Arts

University of Windsor , mottoeng = Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge , established = , academic_affiliations = CARL, COU, Universities Canada , former_names = Assumption College (1857-1956)Assumption University of Windsor (1956-1963) , type = Public universit ...

and a member of the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...

Early life

Baxter was born in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

, England in 1936; his family emigrated to Canada in 1937 and settled in Calgary. In 1959, he received a BSc from the University of Idaho and completed a Master of Education at the

University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The University ...

. Baxter studied art and aesthetics in Japan in 1961 and completed an MFA at

Washington State University at Pullman Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant univer ...

in 1964.

N.E. Thing Co.

Founded in 1966 by Iain and

, N.E. Thing Co. was established as a conceptual vehicle that viewed the art world as "parallel oconsumer culture." N.E. Thing Co. was incorporated under the Companies Act in 1969. Focusing on an interdisciplinary practice and using photography, site-specific performances and installation, N.E. Thing Co. is seen as a "key catalyst and influence for Vancouver photoconceptualism" and is considered a precursor to the

Vancouver School The Vancouver School of Conceptual art, conceptual or post-conceptual photography (often referred to as photoconceptualismSarah Milroy "Is Arden our next greatest photographer?" ''Globe and Mail'' (October 27, 2007): R1.) is a loose term applied t ...

. N.E. Thing Co. created some of the earliest photoconceptual works to display a tendency to use photography to document "idea-works and their sites, as language games and thematic inventories and as reflective investigations of the social and architectural landscape." In 1969, N.E. Thing Company Ltd. produced 'Reflected Landscape: The Arctic Sun' as 35 mm slides, lithograph and transparencies. The image, which is now in a private collection, was taken in

Inuvik Inuvik (''place of man'') is the only town in the Inuvik Region, and the third largest community in Canada's Northwest Territories. Located in what is sometimes called the Beaufort Delta Region, it serves as its administrative and service cen ...

with a mirror reflecting the Arctic sun on the arctic tundra. N.E. Thing Co. disbanded in 1978 when Iain and Ingrid ended their relationship.

Name change

In 2005, Iain Baxter legally changed his name to Iain Baxter& (pronounced ''Baxterand''), in part to reflect his fascination for the

ampersand The ampersand, also known as the and sign, is the logogram , representing the conjunction "and". It originated as a ligature of the letters ''et''—Latin for "and". Etymology Traditionally in English, when spelling aloud, any letter that ...

as a typographic mark but also to reflect what he values in a "non-authorial take on art production... an unending collaboration with the viewer and the means to question the artist's role." He has created a series of sculptural works utilizing the ampersand, including ''And'', a 10-foot inflatable silver version in 2008.

Awards

* 1978:

Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award The Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award is a monetary award given since 1971 by the Canada Council for the Arts to Canadian artists judged to be outstanding in their mid-careers. Since 2005, the award is given to one recipient in each of the followi ...

*2003: Officer of the Order of Canada *2004:

Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts The Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts are annual awards for achievements in visual and media arts in Canada. Up to eight awards are presented annually with the prize amount is $25,000 Created in 2000 by then Governor General Adrie ...

, *2004: Member of the Order of Ontario. *2005: Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize *2006:

Gershon Iskowitz Gershon Iskowitz (1919 – January 26, 1988) was a Canadian artist of Jewish background originally from Poland. Iskowitz was a Holocaust survivor of the Kielce Ghetto, who was liberated at Buchenwald. The circumstances of his early life—the ...

Prize at the Art Gallery of Ontario. *2007: Member of the Order of British Columbia. *2013: Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

*2019: Companion of the Order of Canada

References

Bibliography

*Baxter, Iain and Ingrid Baxter. ''You Are Now in the Middle of a N.E. Thing Co. Landscape: Works by Iain and Ingrid Baxter, 1965-1971.'' Vancouver: The Gallery, 1993. *Baxter&, Iain, James Patten and Christophe Domino. ''Passing Through: Iain Baxter& Photographs, 1958-1983.'' Windsor, Ont.: Art Gallery of Windsor, 2006. *Knight, Derek, Iain Baxter and Ingrid Baxter. ''N.E. Thing Co: The Ubiquitous Concept.'' Oakville, Ont.: Oakville Galleries, 1995. *Mewburn, Charity. ''Sixteen Hundred Miles North of Denver.'' Vancouver: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 1999.

External links

Vancouver Art in the Sixties / Iain Baxter&

IAINBAXTER&raisonnE
. Online catalogue raisonné at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

Libraries Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections online exhibits {{DEFAULTSORT:Baxter, Iain 1936 births Living people Canadian conceptual artists Canadian installation artists Canadian photographers 20th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters 21st-century Canadian painters Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Members of the Order of British Columbia Members of the Order of Ontario Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Companions of the Order of Canada 20th-century Canadian sculptors Canadian male sculptors 20th-century Canadian male artists 21st-century Canadian male artists Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners