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Will Barnet - Love Letters - Exhibitions - Alexandre Gallery

Will Barnet: Love Letters Installation View

The gallery is pleased to present Will Barnet Love Letters, an exhibition of paintings and drawings from 1955 to 1990 focused on the artist’s wife Elena as subject and muse. The show includes seven major paintings dating from 1955 to 2005 and related works on paper. It is accompanied by an illustrated on-line catalogue with introduction by Chris Crosman and text by John Yau.

When Will Barnet (American, 1911 – 2012) met Elena Ciurlys in 1953 it changed his life and his art. Already a well-established presence in the New York art world, Barnet’s fascination with theory, abstraction and the modernist avant-garde suddenly receded in favor of a renewed interest in figuration. Through drawings and painting of his new subject and love, Barnet developed his iconic style of defining the figure through semi-abstract simplified flat, hard-edged forms and minimal naturalistic detail – beautifully balanced and classically structured. This show, gathered from the family’s private collection, features a little remarked upon or noticed aspect of Barnet’s work: its fundamental attention to the importance of human and, especially his most intimate personal relationships. As a body of work, this exhibition celebrates that long, enduring embrace, one captured in the classic beauty, stillness and grace of Elena’s constant presence, of those numinous relationships where line and form reify lives closely lived with tender regard.

Writing on Barnet’s work, the noted critic and poet John Yau says: “Barnet’s synthesis of humanist warmth and precise form attains its clearest expression in the figural paintings he did from the mid-1960s until just before the end of his life, when he returned to abstraction.” Yau continues: “It is not an exaggeration to state that Barnet’s paintings of his second wife, Elena – Double Portrait of Elena (1980s), Elena (1981), and Now and Then (1989) – constitute one of the high points of American art in the 1980s, a decade when slathering paint and showmanship had become the rage. Barnet’s portraits instead embody a quiet rebuke to excess and hyperbole.”

Installations

Installations Thumbnails
Photograph showing a corner view of an exhibition space, with five paintings hung on white walls
Photograph showing a corner view of an exhibition space, with five paintings hung on white walls
Photograph showing a corner view of an exhibition space, with six paintings hanging on white walls
Will Barnet
Photograph showing a corner view of an exhibition space, with nine paintings hung on white walls
Photograph showing a corner view of an exhibition space, with eight paintings hanging on white walls
Photograph showing a front view of an exhibition space, with two paintings hanging on a white wall above a table and chair
Photograph showing a view of an exhibition space, with one hanging hanging on a white wall
Photograph showing a corner view of an exhibition space, with five paintings hung on white walls
Photograph showing a corner view of an exhibition space, with five paintings hung on white walls
Photograph showing a corner view of an exhibition space, with six paintings hanging on white walls
Will Barnet
Photograph showing a corner view of an exhibition space, with nine paintings hung on white walls
Photograph showing a corner view of an exhibition space, with eight paintings hanging on white walls
Photograph showing a front view of an exhibition space, with two paintings hanging on a white wall above a table and chair
Photograph showing a view of an exhibition space, with one hanging hanging on a white wall

Selected Works

Selected Works Thumbnails
Painting of a blue doorway, partially open, with the side of a figure emerging from behind the door whose hand is resting on the doorknob

Anticipation II, 2005, oil on canvas, 50 x 27 inches

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Sheet of paper with a small watercolor painting on it, with a figure standing on a porch looking out at the sea

Study for Early Morning, graphite and watercolor on vellum, 15 1/2 x 15 inches

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Sheet of paper with a small drawing on it, of a figure standing on the shore looking out at the sea at sunset

Evening, Beverly Harbor, 1972, pastel on paper, 14 3/4 x 12 inches

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Portrait of a woman's face turning to look over her shoulder, in grey and black with a red underpainting showing through the right side

Portrait of Elena, 1955, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches

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Graphite drawing of a woman's face

Early Study of Elena, graphite and watercolor on paper, 7 x 5 inches

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Graphite drawing of a woman with her head resting against her raised arm

Early Study of Elena I, pencil on paper, 6 3/8 x 5 inches

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Graphite drawing of a woman with her head resting on her arms

Elena at Rest, pencil on paper, 6 3/8 x 5 inches

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Graphite drawing of a woman's head in profile

Early Study of Elena 2, graphite and watercolor on paper, 7 x 5 inches

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Graphite drawing of a woman with eyes closed, holding a ball

Study of Elena with Ball, graphite on vellum, 20 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches

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Painting of figure in white dress seated in a dark interior, reflected in profile in a mirror in the background

Double - Portrait Elena, 1980s, oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 39 1/2 inches

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Graphite portrait drawing of a woman

Study for Elena in White, graphite on vellum, 24 x 19 inches

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Painting of figure in a black dress and grey shawl seated in a dark interior, reflected in profile in a mirror in the background

Elena, 1981, oil on canvas, 38 x 34 inches

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Graphite drawing of a woman in profile with her chin resting on one hand and the other hand resting on a table in front of her

Study for Memory, 1970, graphite on vellum, 32 1/2 x 28 inches

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Painting of a woman holding a picture of a girl, in front of a large portrait of the same woman

Now and Then, 1989, oil on canvas, 53 1/4 x 45 inches

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Graphite drawing of a reclining woman looking to the side

Study of Elena Reclining, graphite on vellum, 16 x 19 inches

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Painting of a man holding a cigar, standing beside a painting of a woman sewing needlepoint, with the model for the painting on the left side of the canvas

The Cigar, 1998-99, oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 45 inches

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Graphite drawing of a figure lying in bed reading a book, with a cat curled on her stomach

Woman Reading, 1965, pencil on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 inches

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Drawing of a figure holding a cat over her shoulder

Elena with Cat, graphite on vellum, 11 x 8 1/2 inches

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Painting of two figures, one seated and reading, one standing and holding an infant, and a painting of a mother and child in the background

Three Generations, 1990, oil on canvas, 54 3/4 x 54 inches

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Graphite drawing of two abstracted figures, an adult figure seated with a child hanging off of her arm

Untitled (Mother and Child), 1960, graphite on paper, 6 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches

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Graphite drawing of two abstracted figures, an adult figure seated with a child hanging off of her arm

Untitled (Mother and Child), 1960, watercolor and graphite on paper, 6 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches

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Painting of a blue doorway, partially open, with the side of a figure emerging from behind the door whose hand is resting on the doorknob

Anticipation II, 2005, oil on canvas, 50 x 27 inches

Sheet of paper with a small watercolor painting on it, with a figure standing on a porch looking out at the sea

Study for Early Morning, graphite and watercolor on vellum, 15 1/2 x 15 inches

Sheet of paper with a small drawing on it, of a figure standing on the shore looking out at the sea at sunset

Evening, Beverly Harbor, 1972, pastel on paper, 14 3/4 x 12 inches

Portrait of a woman's face turning to look over her shoulder, in grey and black with a red underpainting showing through the right side

Portrait of Elena, 1955, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches

Graphite drawing of a woman's face

Early Study of Elena, graphite and watercolor on paper, 7 x 5 inches

Graphite drawing of a woman with her head resting against her raised arm

Early Study of Elena I, pencil on paper, 6 3/8 x 5 inches

Graphite drawing of a woman with her head resting on her arms

Elena at Rest, pencil on paper, 6 3/8 x 5 inches

Graphite drawing of a woman's head in profile

Early Study of Elena 2, graphite and watercolor on paper, 7 x 5 inches

Graphite drawing of a woman with eyes closed, holding a ball

Study of Elena with Ball, graphite on vellum, 20 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches

Painting of figure in white dress seated in a dark interior, reflected in profile in a mirror in the background

Double - Portrait Elena, 1980s, oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 39 1/2 inches

Graphite portrait drawing of a woman

Study for Elena in White, graphite on vellum, 24 x 19 inches

Painting of figure in a black dress and grey shawl seated in a dark interior, reflected in profile in a mirror in the background

Elena, 1981, oil on canvas, 38 x 34 inches

Graphite drawing of a woman in profile with her chin resting on one hand and the other hand resting on a table in front of her

Study for Memory, 1970, graphite on vellum, 32 1/2 x 28 inches

Painting of a woman holding a picture of a girl, in front of a large portrait of the same woman

Now and Then, 1989, oil on canvas, 53 1/4 x 45 inches

Graphite drawing of a reclining woman looking to the side

Study of Elena Reclining, graphite on vellum, 16 x 19 inches

Painting of a man holding a cigar, standing beside a painting of a woman sewing needlepoint, with the model for the painting on the left side of the canvas

The Cigar, 1998-99, oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 45 inches

Graphite drawing of a figure lying in bed reading a book, with a cat curled on her stomach

Woman Reading, 1965, pencil on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 inches

Drawing of a figure holding a cat over her shoulder

Elena with Cat, graphite on vellum, 11 x 8 1/2 inches

Painting of two figures, one seated and reading, one standing and holding an infant, and a painting of a mother and child in the background

Three Generations, 1990, oil on canvas, 54 3/4 x 54 inches

Graphite drawing of two abstracted figures, an adult figure seated with a child hanging off of her arm

Untitled (Mother and Child), 1960, graphite on paper, 6 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches

Graphite drawing of two abstracted figures, an adult figure seated with a child hanging off of her arm

Untitled (Mother and Child), 1960, watercolor and graphite on paper, 6 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches