John Baeder (b. 1938) American, Serigraph on Canvas. Titled: Empire Diner". The viewer happens upon a diner late one night in New York, the bright white lights and miniature Empire State Building atop the eatery draws your eye immediately. Numbered 25/25 AV, lower left Artist signed, Lower right Overall Size: 24 x 33 in. Sight Size: 17 x 25 in. #4817 John Baeder, born in South Bend, Indiana, 1938, studied at Auburn University in Alabama. His subjects have been almost exclusively isolated roadside diners and eateries. A book featuring him, Diners by John Baeder, was published in 1978 by Abrams Press. John Baeder is a Photorealist painter. His images have entered the secondary market as reproductions on posters, calendars, and postcards (here the energy comes full circle, as old postcards were an important source of inspiration for the paintings). The Disney Company, Coca Cola, and fashion moguls Perry Ellis, Liz Claiborne, and Guess have appropriated them. In the late 1950s, Baeder attended Auburn University. His earliest paintings were expressionist figural abstractions inspired by the work of Diebenkorn, de Kooning, Tworkov, and others. As a serious student, Baeder read and reread the then little-known IT IS, an Abstract Expressionist journal of painting, poetry published in 1958-59. The real magic of the Auburn years, however, was the trips back and forth, between semesters, from Atlanta to Alabama. It was during these drives that Baeder's romance with the back roads of America stirred and his love affair with diners took hold. As a youngster, he enjoyed bike rides with a Baby Brownie camera in hand; This was the beginning of his documentary quest. His targets were old relics, in particular old cars, whose craftsmanship and beauty caught his attention. And, in fact, Baeder began his professional career as an art director. He worked first in Atlanta, from 1960-64, with a branch of a New York ad agency. Then he moved in New York City. During his years as an art director, Baeder kept his technical artistic abilities honed through drawing, painting, and photography; this was especially important as part of a process leading up to Photorealism. The many aspects of art directing, including marketing, merchandising, promotions, and public relations, kept his vision focused on American material culture. One of Baeder's New York City ad agency offices was across the street from the Museum of Modern Art. The Museum's photography department was like a haven for him. He studied the work of Bernice Abbott, Russell Lee, Walker Evans, and Ben Shahn, and other photographers of the FSA (Farm Security Administration). Baeder began to collect photography-Abbott, Atget, Evans, and Lewis Hine are represented in his collection-and he began to take pictures in earnest. Urged on by an already-developed sensitivity for the beauty and value of old things, he documented the urban environment, especially the fast-disappearing elements of city fabrics. It was a short step to the diners.