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Baeder Empire Diner Print
Baeder Empire Diner Print
Regular price
$160.00 NZD
Regular price
Sale price
$160.00 NZD
Unit price
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per
Tax included.
Previously an art director in a New York City advertising firm, John Baeder switched careers in 1972, becoming a full-time artist. While Baeder’s use of photographic sources, precise painting style, and preference for everyday subjects makes him similar to other Photorealist artists, his exclusive focus on the diner is unique. Symbolizing the car trips of his youth and the disappearance of American roadside culture, diners have a nostalgic significance for the artist.
Empire Diner, 1976 is a bit of an anomaly in Baeder’s oeuvre. Seent an angle rather than frontally, the restaurant is depicted at night and utterly aglow, more akin to an Art Deco architectural monument than a casual eatery. Interestingly, Baedar did not consider the Empire an authentic American diner. ‘I always passed the “Empire” during the day and knew it was out of place . . . At night, the Empire becomes stately, changes garb, and turns into a nocturnal melody for Gotham’s chic, pseudo-chic, kinky and pseudo-kinky crowd. A real diner it ain’t.’ However Baeder might have felt about the Manhattan restaurant, he must have found the juxtaposition of the words ‘EAT’ and ‘EMPIRE’ on its exterior humorous and revealing.
23.9 x 14.8cm (image only)
35.2 x 27.8 x 0.1cm (including white matting)
made in New Zealand
Unframed prints can be shipped both nationally and internationally, framed prints are only available to be shipped within Aotearoa, New Zealand.
