The central image of the spaceship interacts with the various collaged and painted background elements to create abstract, enigmatic narratives in this painting by the late Donald Baechler. His canvases often operate like memory boards, using materials and fabrics collected during his travels. An important member of the Neo-Expressionist movement, Baechler is also acknowledged as a second-generation pop artist. In the vein of contemporaries such as Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Kenny Scharf, Baechler incorporated childlike imagery in his paintings, also taking note of styles established by Cy Twombly and Jean Dubuffet. His seemingly ordinary subjects–such as flowers, houses, and household items–are transformed to symbolize universal themes like community, identity, sexuality, and mortality. Through the combination of collected media images and his own drawings and paintings, Baechler expressed an interest in pop culture, giving the illusion of nostalgia among viewers.

Today, Baechler’s works are included in major collections around the world, such as in the Goetz Collection, Munich, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, among many others.