Bill Barrett | |
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![]() Bill Barrett with his marble sculpture, "Lexeme VIII," in Zell, Germany. | |
Born | Los Angeles, California | December 21, 1934
Nationality | American |
Education | University of Michigan: B.S. in Design (1958), M.S. in Design (1959), MFA (1960) |
Known for | Sculptor, 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]
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]
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]
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.
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.
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]
Alexander 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.
A maquette is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture. An equivalent term is bozzetto, a diminutive of the Italian word for a sketch.
Adolph Gottlieb was an American abstract expressionist painter who also made sculpture and became a print maker.
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.
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.
Anthony Peter Smith was an American sculptor, visual artist, architectural designer, and a noted theorist on art. He is often cited as a pioneering figure in American Minimalist sculpture.
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.
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.
Scott Burton was an American sculptor and performance artist best known for his large-scale furniture sculptures in granite and bronze.
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.
Thornton Willis is an American abstract painter. He has contributed to the New York School of painting since the late 1960s. Viewed as a member of the Third Generation of American Abstract Expressionists, his work is associated with Abstract Expressionism, Lyrical Abstraction, Process Art, Postminimalism, Bio-morphic Cubism and Color Field painting.
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.
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.
Maria Martins was a Brazilian visual artist who was particularly well known for her modern sculptures.
Luise Clayborn Kaish was an American artist known for her work in sculpture, painting, and collage. Throughout her career, Kaish's work was exhibited and collected by major museums, including the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the Jewish Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kaish created monumental sculptures in bronze, aluminum, and stainless steel, which remain on view in educational, religious, and commercial settings across the United States and internationally.