Rudolf Baranik was an artist, educator and writer.

Born in Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

, he immigrated to the United States

Immigration to the United States

Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants,...

 in 1938. He was well known in the art world for his political advocacy, and was one of the first artists to organize protests against the war in Vietnam. Some of his best known works are the Napalm Elegies, a series of 30 antiwar paintings created between 1967 and 1974. His art was inspired by his sense of the gross inequities around the world, and he led virtually every progressive political movement within the New York art world from the 1960s to the mid-1990s.
Significant exhibitions and awards include:1981 Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts, 1982 "Art Couples 1: May Stevens and Rudolf Baranik," P.S. 1, New York, NY

May Stevens

May Stevens is an American feminist artist, political activist, educator, and writer. Major works include: Freedom Riders , "Big Daddy" series , Ordinary/Extraordinary , and SoHo Women Artists . In 1977, she was one of the featured artists discussed in a seminar given by Jacqueline Moss at the...

, and 1966 Peace Tower

Peace Tower (art)

Peace Tower is an art installation by Mark di Suvero and others. It was first conceived and constructed in 1966 as The Artists' Tower of Protest in Los Angeles, California to protest the Vietnam War...

. Baranik's art is included in many collections, including the Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

 in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art

Whitney Museum of American Art

The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...

 and the Hirshhorn Museum.

Baranik died in Eldorado, New Mexico

Eldorado at Santa Fe, New Mexico

Eldorado at Santa Fe is a census-designated place in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, United States. It is part of the Santa Fe, New Mexico Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,799 at the 2000 census....

 in 1998.

The paintings of Rudolf Baranik are increasingly thought to be among the most important works of the New York School painting of the 1960's and 1970's, with the late paintings in particular considered by American art critic, Donald Kuspit

Donald Kuspit

Donald Kuspit is an American art critic, poet, and Distinguished Professor of art history and philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and professor of art history at the School of Visual Arts. Kuspit is one of America's most distinguished art critics. He was formerly the A....

, "the true climax of fifty years of Western abstract painting."