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

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

conceptual artist. BAXTER& is recognized internationally as an early practitioner of conceptual art; the

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to ...

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 studies, media theory. Raised in Winnipeg, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba a ...

of the visual arts." BAXTER& was co-president with Ingrid Baxter of the conceptual project and legally incorporated business N.E. Thing Co., founded in 1966. BAXTER& is Professor Emeritus at the School of Visual Arts

University of Windsor The University of Windsor (UWindsor, U of W, or UWin) is a public university, public research university in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's southernmost university. It has approximately 17,500 students. The university was incorporated by ...

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 Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria on 16 ...

Early life

BAXTER& was born in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

, 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, United States. Established in 1889 and opened three years later, it was the state's sole university for 71 years, until 1963. The un ...

. BAXTER& studied art and aesthetics in Japan in 1961 and completed an MFA at Washington State University at Pullman in 1964.

N.E. Thing Co.

Founded in 1966 by IAIN and Ingrid Baxter, 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 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 to a grouping ...

. 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 List of municipalities in the Northwest Territories, third largest community in Canada's Northwest Territories. Located in what is sometimes called the Beaufort Delta Re ...

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 ''Baxter-and''), in part to reflect his fascination for the

ampersand The ampersand, also known as the and sign, is the logogram , representing the grammatical conjunction, conjunction "and". It originated as a typographic ligature, ligature of the letters of the word (Latin for "and"). Etymology Tradi ...

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 follow ...

*2003: Officer of the Order of Canada *2004: Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, *2004: Member of the Order of Ontario. *2005: Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize *2006: Gershon Iskowitz 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; , 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, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

*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 (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

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