George Baker

George Baker is Professor and Department Chair of Art History at UCLA, where he has developed the modern and contemporary art program since 2003. A renowned scholar and critic, he previously taught at Columbia University and SUNY Purchase.

His research spans modernist avant-gardes (especially Dada and Surrealism), photography, film theory, and contemporary art. Baker's influential book The Artwork Caught by the Tail: Francis Picabia and Dada in Paris reshaped understanding of Dada's impact on modern culture. His recent work Lateness and Longing examines analogue aesthetics in photography through artists like Zoe Leonard and Tacita Dean.

Baker's research has been supported by prestigious fellowships including from the Mellon Foundation, Getty Research Institute, and National Gallery of Art. He serves as editor for the journal October and has contributed criticism to Artforum, Frieze, and Parkett for three decades.

His teaching emphasizes political and marginalized histories, with seminars on topics ranging from colonialist primitivism to queer art histories. Current projects include edited volumes on Tacita Dean and Sanya Kantarovsky.