Will Barnet at 100
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Will Barnet is still painting. The Beverly, MA native has long divided his time between New York and New England, and by “long,” I mean the last century. It’s fitting that his retrospective, Will Barnet at 100, traveled from the Portland Museum of Art to the National Academy Museum, where it runs through the end of the year.
In the 1960s, Barnet swerved into a peculiar take on figuration, which he explored for the next 40 years. This is the work for which he is deservedly known. Barnet hit upon a oil painting technique that appears simple: outline the forms in a thin gray line and fill in the enclosed shapes with a single color. A Japanese woodblock print works in the same way, and it’s curious that no one stumbled on it earlier. But simple paintings have few working components, and if those components go wrong, they cause disproportionate damage. Artists working thusly need unusual powers of taste.
Read the whole essay at The Arts Fuse.
“Will Barnet at 100” runs through December 31 at the National Academy Museum and School, 1083 Fifth Avenue, between 89th and 90th streets, 212-369-4880, nationalacademy.org.
Franklin Einspruch is an artist and writer.
