Bill Barrett (artist)

Last updated

Bill Barrett
Barrett with "Lexeme VIII".jpg
Bill Barrett with his marble sculpture, "Lexeme VIII," in Zell, Germany.
Born (1934-12-21) December 21, 1934 (age 89)
Los Angeles, California
NationalityAmerican
Education University of Michigan: B.S. in Design (1958), M.S. in Design (1959), MFA (1960)
Known forSculptor, Painter

Bill Barrett (born December 21, 1934) is an American sculptor, painter and jeweller. [1] He is considered a central figure in the second generation of American metal sculptors [2] and is internationally known for his abstract sculptures in steel, aluminum and bronze. [3]

Contents

Bill Barrett, Martha Graham Ensemble, 2007-2008, Fabricated Bronze, 12' x 18' x 8' Bill Barrett's Martha Graham Ensemble.jpg
Bill Barrett, Martha Graham Ensemble, 2007–2008, Fabricated Bronze, 12' x 18' x 8'

Steel

Barrett began welding while a student at the University of Michigan. His early works consisted of steel rods, joined to create open, three-dimensional drawings. For subsequent sculptures, he filled in the negative space between the rods with molten metal and steel plates. From here, Barrett developed a technique of cutting steel sheets into rectangular shapes and forming the shapes into three-dimensional blocks or cylindrical forms. [4] He also explored the surface of steel, grinding or brushing the surface to give his finished work texture. Barrett later painted his steel sculptures to prevent the final pieces from rusting. [5]

Aluminum

Bill Barrett, Hari IV, 1982, Fabricated Aluminum, 32' x 30' x 16' Hari IV.jpg
Bill Barrett, Hari IV, 1982, Fabricated Aluminum, 32' x 30' x 16'

Barrett's work with aluminum began in 1960s. These sculptures were composed of flat, horizontal shapes; their surfaces were bright and clean. They suggested Minimalist sculpture and the work of Tony Smith. [6]

Bill Barrett, Guardian, 1986, Fabricated Aluminum, 15' x 13' x 12' Guardian sculpture.jpg
Bill Barrett, Guardian, 1986, Fabricated Aluminum, 15' x 13' x 12'

In 1982, Barrett was commissioned for the City of New York through Percent for Art to create his largest sculpture to date, "Hari IV" (28' x 32' x 16'), for New Dorp High School on Staten Island. Keeping contemporary culture in mind, Barrett's title for this work comes from a graffiti "tag" that was appearing on New York City Subway cars at the time. The work was well received by the students, earning the nickname "the elephant". It became the high school's symbol, being used on the yearbook cover and adorning the football team's helmets. The New York Times critic Michael Brenson called this sculpture " one of the most successful public sculptures in the city." [7] In 1986, Barrett was commissioned for the state of Connecticut for the Criminal Courts Building in Hartford, CT to create "Guardian", a fabricated aluminum sculpture that stands 15 feet tall.

Bill Barrett, Melinda at the Beach, 2002, Fabricated Bronze, 15' x 25' x 12' Barrett's Melinda at the Beach.jpg
Bill Barrett, Melinda at the Beach, 2002, Fabricated Bronze, 15' x 25' x 12'

Bronze

Bill Barrett, Santa Fe Suite, 2010, Oil on Canvas, 60" x 48" Barrett's Santa Fe Suite.jpg
Bill Barrett, Santa Fe Suite, 2010, Oil on Canvas, 60" x 48"

Barrett started working with bronze as a way to explore increasingly fluid and gestural forms. As his interest in expressive forms grew, Barrett found that wax gave him the creative freedom to model shapes. He created a technique of pouring wax into a baking tin, drawing the shapes in the wax, and then combining the shapes to create a model, twisting and carving away at each shape by hand. The most successful models were cast into bronze and the bronze maquettes were then fabricated into larger bronze sculptures. [8] From the '90s on, Barrett's bronze works took on a free-flowing quality that suggested calligraphy, movement, dance and music. Several sculptures from this decade refer directly to dance. [9] In May 2011, Barrett installed a bronze sculpture in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood, for temporary display, as a memorial to September 11, 2001. [10] In addition, the artist's small sculpture "Lexeme VII" is part of the 911 Memorial and Museum's permanent collection in New York City.

Bill Barrett, Lexeme VII Model, 2011, 21" x 15" x 10.5" LEXEME VII.jpg
Bill Barrett, Lexeme VII Model, 2011, 21" x 15" x 10.5"

Painting

Inspired by the light and colors of New Mexico, and by Arshile Gorky, Fernand Léger, and Jean Arp, Barrett began painting in 1992. [11] His vibrant paintings quickly became an important part of his entire creative process—they complemented and influenced the free-flowing feel of his sculptures. [12] Drawing—rhythmic contours and marks—maintained a central role in the creation of his paintings and sculptures. [13] Since 1992, Barrett has had a number of solo exhibitions, featuring both painting and sculpture. [14] In 2010 Barrett exhibited paintings and sculptures in two separate shows: Polyphonic Abstractions: Painting and Maquettes by Bill Barrett at the Christian Petersen Art Museum at Iowa State University, and Synchronicity at Kouros Gallery in New York City. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Calder</span> American sculptor (1898–1976)

Alexander "Sandy" Calder was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and his monumental public sculptures. Calder preferred not to analyze his work, saying, "Theories may be all very well for the artist himself, but they shouldn't be broadcast to other people."

This page describe terms and jargon related to sculpture and sculpting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maquette</span> Scale model of unfinished sculpture

A maquette is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture or work of architecture. The term is a loanword from French. An equivalent term is bozzetto, a diminutive of the Italian word for a sketch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolph Gottlieb</span> American abstract expressionist painter, sculptor and printmaker

Adolph Gottlieb was an American abstract expressionist painter who also made sculpture and became a print maker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Graves</span> American painter (1939–1995)

Nancy Graves was an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and sometime filmmaker known for her focus on natural phenomena like camels or maps of the Moon. Her works are included in many public collections, including those of the National Gallery of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), the Des Moines Art Center, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), and the Museum of Fine Arts. When Graves was just 29, she was given a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. At the time she was the youngest artist, and fifth woman to achieve this honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellsworth Kelly</span> American painter, sculptor, and printmaker

Ellsworth Kelly was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, color and form, similar to the work of John McLaughlin and Kenneth Noland. Kelly often employed bright colors. He lived and worked in Spencertown, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Moore</span> English artist known for sculpture (1898–1986)

Henry Spencer Moore was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore also produced many drawings, including a series depicting Londoners sheltering from the Blitz during the Second World War, along with other graphic works on paper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronnie Landfield</span> American painter

Ronnie Landfield is an American abstract painter. During his early career from the mid-1960s through the 1970s his paintings were associated with Lyrical Abstraction, and he was represented by the David Whitney Gallery and the André Emmerich Gallery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyrical abstraction</span> Art movement

Lyrical abstraction is either of two related but distinct trends in Post-war Modernist painting:

Dan Christensen, was an American abstract painter He is best known for paintings that relate to Lyrical Abstraction, Color field painting, and Abstract expressionism.

Lynn Russell Chadwick, was an English sculptor and artist. Much of his work is semi-abstract sculpture in bronze or steel. His work is in the collections of MoMA in New York, the Tate in London and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

Christian Petersen was a Danish-born American sculptor and university teacher. He was the first permanent artist in residence at a U.S. college or university, and he is noted for the large body of sculpture associated with a single place, Iowa State College, now Iowa State University.

Carol Lorraine Sutton is a multidisciplinary artist born in Norfolk, Virginia, USA and now living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is a painter whose works on canvas and paper have been shown in 32 solo exhibits as well as being included in 94 group shows. Her work, which ranges from complete abstraction to the use of organic and architectural images, relates to the formalist ideas of Clement Greenberg and is noted for the use of color. Some of Sutton paintings have been related to ontology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Burton</span> American sculptor (1939–1989)

Scott Burton was an American sculptor and performance artist best known for his large-scale furniture sculptures in granite and bronze.

<i>Throwback</i> (3/3)

Throwback is a public artwork by American artist Tony Smith, located at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., United States. This version is the third of an edition of three in the series with one artist's proof.

<i>Expressionist Head</i> Works by Roy Lichtenstein

Expressionist Head by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein is the name associated with several 1980s works of art. It is widely associated with a set of six identical sculptures but is also associated with a series of paintings.

John Silk Deckard was an American artist from Erie, Pennsylvania. He worked in a number of media, including drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern sculpture</span> Era of sculpture beginning with Auguste Rodin

Modern sculpture is generally considered to have begun with the work of Auguste Rodin, who is seen as the progenitor of modern sculpture. While Rodin did not set out to rebel against the past, he created a new way of building his works. He "dissolved the hard outline of contemporary Neo-Greek academicism, and thereby created a vital synthesis of opacity and transparency, volume and void". Along with a few other artists in the late 19th century who experimented with new artistic visions in sculpture like Edgar Degas and Paul Gauguin, Rodin invented a radical new approach in the creation of sculpture. Modern sculpture, along with all modern art, "arose as part of Western society's attempt to come to terms with the urban, industrial and secular society that emerged during the nineteenth century".

Lila Katzen, born Lila Pell, was an American sculptor of fluid, large-scale metal abstractions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Martins (artist)</span> Brazilian sculptor, designer, writer, painter, writer and musician

Maria Martins was a Brazilian visual artist who was particularly well known for her modern sculptures.

References

  1. Palmedo (2003), p. 13.
  2. Palmedo(2003) pp. 19–20.
  3. Exhibition Catalogue, Polyphonic Abstraction: Paintings and Maquettes by Bill Barrett, Iowa State University’s Christian Petersen Art Museum, Exhibition Statement, p. 1.
  4. Palmedo (2003), pp. 19–27.
  5. Palmedo (2003), pp. 31–33.
  6. Palmedo (2003), pp. 31–34.
  7. Palmedo (2003), p. 57.
  8. Palmedo (2003), pp. 54–55.
  9. Palmedo (2003), pp. 88–111.
  10. Shapiro, Julie. Artist's 9/11 Sculpture Rises in TriBeCa, DNAinfo.com Archived March 20, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  11. Palmedo (2003), p. 85.
  12. Palmedo (2003), p. 99.
  13. Rowe, Jessica M., Exhibition Catalogue, Elizabeth and Byron Anderson Sculpture Garden, Iowa State University, 2008, Exquisite Balance: Sculptures by Bill Barrett, p. 14.
  14. Exhibition Catalogue, Polyphonic Abstraction: Paintings and Maquettes by Bill Barrett, Iowa State University’s Christian Petersen Art Museum.
  15. Exhibition Catalogue, Polyphonic Abstraction: Paintings and Maquettes by Bill Barrett, Iowa State University’s Christian Petersen Art Museum, Selected Chronology

Bibliography

Further reading