ARTIST

Born in New York City and educated at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Cooper Union, and Bildende Künste Städelschule, Frankfurt; Donald Baechler was a key member of the East Village art scene in the 1980s. “Donald Baechler’s seemingly ingenuous depictions of everyday objects and simple figures succeed in large part by tapping into our nostalgia for childhood, that period of life before the rivening onset of self-consciousness and guilt. It’s a myth, of course: children are hardly angelic, and alienation is the state of humanity — while Beachler’s art works hard to achieve its trademark appearance of prelapsarian sincerity and artlessness,” writes Steven Vincent for “Art in America.” Known for his drawings, paintings, and collages, Baechler is often associated with other East Village artists, including Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Kenny Scharf.