WILL BARNET: THE NINETIES

An exhibition of recent paintings and new prints

April 6 – May 18, 2002

Reception for the artist Saturday, April 6, from 3 to 5:30 pm

This exhibition of paintings and prints from 1990 to the present marks Will Barnet’s first show of new work in seven years. With subjects drawn from family and his familiar surroundings in New York and Maine, Barnet continues to develop a seamless union of the classical formal language of abstraction with deeply human and poetic figurative content. Characteristic techniques include the use of dynamic rhythms, rich colors and flat forms. The superfluous is stripped away to reveal the very structure of stillness, silence and clarity.

Commenting on his work, the critic John Russell notes that Barnet “can set up an atmosphere of ambiguity and suspense, both physical and psychological, that we should be glad to experience more often.”

Born in 1911, Barnet studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) and the Arts Students League. As a painter, printmaker and teacher, Barnet has made significant contributions to American art for seven decades. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Academy of Design. Barnet has been represented by Alexandre Fine Art, Inc. since 1996. Previous exhibitions of his work were organized in partnership with Tibor de Nagy (1998 and 2000). In 2000 Barnet’s work was the subject of a traveling retrospective organized by the Montclair Art Museum (catalogue by Gail Stavitsky, Jessica Nicoll and others).

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue and will travel to the Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland, Maine), where it opens August 4.