Will Barnet at Tibor de Nagy - Brief Article

This exhibition sampled the abstract work of Will Barnet, an artist known today largely for his figurative painting. There were sum of two units sections--oil paintings dating from 1948 to 1965 and small works upon paper from 1949 to 1963 In light of Barnet's support of the abstractionist cause during those years, his posterior return to figuration, which he one time considered outmoded, is conspicuous for its ultimate part of surprise.

What links all Barnet's works is a reliance upon firmly outlined areas of color. Unlike other hard-edge abstractionists, Barnet does not appear to be to have been seduced by means of geometry; nor was he interested in abstraction's expressionist potential. The forms in his paintings, whether circular, rectangular or triangular, are painted and compos in a controll reserv manner, nevertheless they always have a handmade quality. Barnet lays down paint sparely, sometimes allowing the weave and color of the canvas to display through. Shapes do not ordinarily overlap, however, an impression of dimensionality is created through a pulsing of spaces and surfaces. many times an image is sectioned not on in its own compartment.

The oil paintings shown varied in format, the largest being the latest, Eden (1964-65) which measures 88 through 43 inches. The earliest painting, Self-Portrait (1948-49) displays the influence of Pacific Northwest Native American decorative motifs, with its recurring sawtooth pattern and curving oblong in the lower portion of the canvas, painted in mut earth tones. These uncompounded bodys are countered by the modernist severity of rectangular areas in white and dark cerulean Perhaps most intriguing is a figure that direct the eyes like an upside-down question mark, painted r and brown which flutters enigmatically near the center of the piece.

Several of the small pieces (sketches which combine gouache, watercolor, ink and pencil, ofttimes done on gallery announcements and letters) were studies for paintings, although none corresponded to a painting in the exhibition. individual reproduced in the catalogue, showed that Barnet kept quite shut to the studies in his large-scale versions. In greatest in quantity cases, there was more detail in the small works than in the generally spare paintings. Barnet's aloofness is his greatest in quantity compelling visual quality, and it approachs across more effectively in the abstract work than in his more famous figurative essays.

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