Will Barnet:
Self-Portraits and Family
January 23 through March 7
Opening Reception Saturday, the 25, 3 to 5 pm
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Self Portrait with Minou
, 1991, oil on canvas, 29 ¼ x 28 ½ inches
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Through twelve paintings and drawings from the artist’s estate, this show explores Will Barnet’s (American, 1911 – 2012) artistic and personal life’s journey through portraiture. Like his portraits of collectors, family and friends, Barnet paints himself either within a domestic environment or his studio, and often with his beloved wife and muse, Elena.
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Self Portrait
, 1944, oil on canvas, 18 x 14 inches
In 1931, in the midst of the Great Depression and just nineteen years old, Barnet moved to New York City where he believed he would find the environment that would help him flourish as a modern artist. He was awarded a full scholarship to study at the Arts Students League. During this formative period, Barnet supported himself as a master printmaker at the League and assisted artists including Jose Clemente Orozco, Charles White and Louise Bourgeois. These early, strong varying influences set the stage for Barnet’s long career and established his equal interest in both the representational and the abstract, each of which were dominant in different periods of his work.
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Study for The Purple Bottle
, 1997, carbon pencil on vellum, 35 ½ x 39 ½ inches
In 2011, Barnet was awarded the National Medal of Arts in a White House ceremony by President Obama, who noted that “his nuanced and graceful depictions of family and personal scenes, for which he is best known, are meticulously constructed of flat planes that reveal a lifelong exploration of abstraction, expressionism and geometry.”
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Vincent Smith:
Five Brooklyn Paintings from the 1970s
January 23 through March 7
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The Soul Brothers
, c. 1970, oil on canvas, 31 ¼ x 24 ¾ inches
This focus show includes five paintings that depict the life in tenements and streets during the tumultuous period of the early 1970s in American cities and in Vincent Smith’s (American, 1929 – 2003) native Brooklyn.
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Apple Pies for the Kids
, 1971, oil and sand on canvas, 48 x 38 ½ inches
Smith pushed for an art that served a lasting social purpose. Primarily serving as a visual document of the racial upheaval, violence and poverty that were taking place around him in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, his work is known for its expressive, abstract figures, and highly emotive dark, patterned backgrounds. As an artist, teacher and informed student of art history, Smith’s work is a reflection of his desire to share his experience within the urban black world of his time.
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On a Sunny Day
, c. 1972, oil and sand on canvas, 43 ½ x 49 ½ inches
In all his work, Smith takes us along a journey; his narrative segues smoothly between the African-American and African experience. Using iconography interpreted as both personal and universal, his observations are poignant and unflinching.
-Nancy E. Green, Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University
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Thank you, San Francisco! We are just back and enjoyed a successful
UNTITLED, ART San Francisco
featuring works by Pat Adams, Lee Bontecou, Lois Dodd and Stephen Westfall.
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UNTITLED, ART Installation Views
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Alexandre Gallery | 212-755-2828 | www.alexandregallery.com
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