Donald Baechler was an American artist bon in Hartford, Connecticut in 1956. He studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art from 1974-1977 and at Cooper Union from 1977 to 1978. He became dissatisfied with New York City and proceeded to the Staatliche Hochschule fuer Bildende Künste Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Baechler returned to New York City in 1980, where he was soon a part of a burgeoning Lower Manhattan arts scene, showing in the East Village and exhibition spaces such as Artists Space and the Drawing Center. Baechler's early work was noted for childlike imagery and thematics—associations which have recurred throughout his career. Widely regarded as a painter, Baechler's three-dimensional work has been correlated to the sculptural works of Roy Lichtenstein, Alex Katz and Carroll Dunham. Baechler has long experimented with a variety of forms and materials, always maintaining what has been dubbed his "gee-whiz approach." Alex Hawgood, in a 2008 New York Timesprofile, summarized: "Baechler ... is known for his sunny, multimedia work that explores the language of cultural symbols.” The artist died in 2022.