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Will Barnet Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

American, 1911-2012
At the beginning of his career, Will Barnet was known for his figural depictions of domestic scenes. But, as he continued to stylistically develop, Barnet arrived at abstract geometric paintings far removed from his original career. A part of the Indian Space Painters group, Barnet was inspired by Native American art in creating these divergent images. Throughout his career, Barnet oscillated between representational and abstract paintings, never fully settling on one. He has received the National Medal of Arts in 2011, and his work has been displayed at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Artist: Will Barnet
Spirit of Youth, Watercolor and Pastel Drawing by Will Barnet
By Will Barnet
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Will Barnet, American (1911 - 2012) Title: Spirit of Youth Year: circa 1980 Medium: Watercolor and Pastel on Paper, signed and dedicated Size: 11 in. x 7.5 in. (27.94 cm ...
Category

1970s Contemporary Will Barnet Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Pastel, Watercolor

Minou-Study of Head
By Will Barnet
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Minou-Study of Head Charcoal and pencil on vellum, 1984 Signed and dated in pencil by the artist Minou was Barnet's feline companion throughout many of his most prolific years. It has been said that if you entered Barnet's studio and Minou did not like you Barnet lost interest and dismissed you almost immediately. Provenance: Susan Teller Gallery, prior to 2005 (one of Barnet's friends and dealers) Babcock Galleries, 2005-2008 This drawing is related to a similar composition reproduced in the Richard Boyle catalog for Babcock Galleries. References: Boyle, Will Barnet Drawings, related to works reproduced on pp. 21, 41 (see photo of page 41) Minou is the cat on the back right. Condition: Excellent Stray ink and paint consistent with a working studio drawing Archival framing with DEN Glass (see photo) Image size: 9 x 11 7/8 inches Frame size: 17 x 19 inches Will Barnet Born May 25, 1911, Beverly, Massachusetts, US Died November 13, 2012 (aged 101), New York City, US Will Barnet (May 25, 1911 – November 13, 2012) was an American artist known for his paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints depicting the human figure and animals, both in casual scenes of daily life and in transcendent dreamlike worlds. Biography Born in 1911 in Beverly, Massachusetts, Barnet knew by the age of ten that he wanted to be an artist. As a student, he studied with Philip Leslie Hale at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and viewed first-hand John Singer Sargent at work on the murals of the Boston Public Library. In 1930, Barnet studied at the Art Students League of New York, with Stuart Davis and Charles Locke, beginning his long association with the school. Here he concentrated on painting as well as printmaking, and, in 1936, he became the official printer for the Art Students League. There, he later instructed students in the graphic arts at the school and taught alongside the likes of Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Robert Beverly Hale and Richard Pousette-Dart. Barnet influenced a generation of artists, including James Rosenquist, Knox Martin, Emil Milan, Paul Jenkins, Ethel Fisher and Cy Twombly. Barnet continued his love of teaching with positions at the Cooper Union, at Yale University, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He was represented by the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York City. Barnet had three sons, Peter, Richard, and Todd Barnet, by his first wife Mary Sinclair. Barnet later married Elena Barnet, with whom he had a daughter, Ona Barnet. Death A longtime resident of the National Arts Club, Barnet died in New York City on November 13, 2012, at the age of 101. Works Barnett's works span the various "movements" of their era, from his early social realist work to his final signature style of clean lines and carefully placed volumes of solid color in a kind of minimalist representational approach. His work is concerned with humanity, yet at his core he always remained a formalist, cerebral in his approach to the elements that make up a good picture. In his interviews he articulated his well thought out principles regarding color use, composition and subject matter, in a professorial manner reflecting the theoretical acumen he brought to his teaching. Like many American painters of his generation he was digesting the evolving trends in Europe and integrating the new visual vocabulary into his American style while remaining universal, referencing his own personal history with images of his wife, his daughter, and their family pets. As James Thomas Flexner wrote, Barnet's work "makes us experience the interplay between the personal and the universal." While remaining representational, the simple elegance of the figures and their flat surfaces reflect his exploration with abstraction. Will's artistic output spans eighty years. Few artists, other than Picasso or Monet, can claim such a long continuous period of inspired art making, nor the logical progression of moving through artistic phases: in the 1930s he was a social realist, in the 1940s a Modernist, in the 1950s an Abstract Expressionist and in the 1960s and onward he settled on a representational minimalism honed from the refinement of his earlier explorations. His early work is decidedly social realist, with sullen portraits done in dark tonalities that suggest both the struggle of the depression era and the hope in the simple love of family life. He moves out of this phase with the improving economy and in the 1940s adds vibrant color and more abstract figures, suggesting a lifting of the depression era malaise. He was a key figure in the 1940s New York movement called Indian Space Painting, artists who based their abstract and semi-abstract work on Native American art; a striking movement which had a handful of practitioners (notably Steve Wheeler...
Category

1980s American Modern Will Barnet Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Charcoal

Final Study for Atalanta, Girl with Apple
By Will Barnet
Located in Greenwich, CT
Will Barnet is one of America's best loved and known artists of the Post War era. He is highly distinctive for his figurative and narrative work and in some ways he is the Edgar All...
Category

1970s American Modern Will Barnet Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Vellum, Color Pencil, Graphite

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Male Torso
Male Torso
H 20.08 in W 26.78 in D 1.19 in
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Early in the morning of May 21, three Panthers – Warren Kimbro, Lonnie McLucas, and George Sams, one of the Panthers who had come East from California to investigate the police infiltration of the New York Panther chapter, drove Rackley to the nearby town of Middlefield, Connecticut. Kimbro shot Rackley once in the head and McLucas shot him once in the chest. They dumped his corpse in a swamp, where it was discovered the next day. New Haven police immediately arrested eight New Haven area Black Panthers. Sams and two other Panthers from California were captured later. Sams and Kimbro confessed to the murder, and agreed to testify against McLucas in exchange for a reduction in sentence. Sams also implicated Seale in the killing, telling his interrogators that while visiting the Panther headquarters on the night of his speech, Seale had directly ordered him to murder Rackley. In all, nine defendants were indicted on charges related to the case. 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Hostility from the left was also directed at the two Panthers cooperating with the prosecutors. Sams in particular was accused of being an informant, and lying to implicate Seale for personal benefit. In the days leading up to a rally on May Day 1970, thousands of supporters of the Panthers arrived in New Haven individually and in organized groups. They were housed and fed by community organizations and by sympathetic Yale students in their dormitory rooms. The Yale college dining halls provided basic meals for everyone. Protesters met daily en masse on the New Haven Green across the street from the Courthouse (and one hundred yards from Yale's main gate). On May Day there was a rally on the Green, featuring speakers including Jean Genet, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and John Froines (an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon). Teach-ins and other events were also held in the colleges themselves. Towards midnight on May 1, two bombs exploded in Yale's Ingalls Rink, where a concert was being held in conjunction with the protests.[4] Although the rink was damaged, no one was injured, and no culprit was identified.[4] Yale chaplain William Sloane Coffin stated, "All of us conspired to bring on this tragedy by law enforcement agencies by their illegal acts against the Panthers, and the rest of us by our immoral silence in front of these acts," while Yale President Kingman Brewster Jr. issued the statement, "I personally want to say that I'm appalled and ashamed that things should have come to such a pass that I am skeptical of the ability of a Black revolutionary to receive a fair trial anywhere in the U.S." Brewster's generally sympathetic tone enraged many of the university's older, more conservative alumni, heightening tensions within the school community. As tensions mounted, Yale officials sought to avoid deeper unrest and to deflect the real possibility of riots or violent student demonstrations. Sam Chauncey has been credited with winning tactical management on behalf of the administration to quell anxiety among law enforcement and New Haven's citizens, while Kurt Schmoke, a future Rhodes Scholar, mayor of Baltimore, MD and Dean of Howard University School of Law, has received kudos as undergraduate spokesman to the faculty during some of the protest's tensest moments. Ralph Dawson, a classmate of Schmoke's, figured prominently as moderator of the Black Student Alliance at Yale (BSAY). In the end, compromises between the administration and the students - and, primarily, urgent calls for nonviolence from Bobby Seale and the Black Panthers themselves - quashed the possibility of violence. While Yale (and many other colleges) went "on strike" from May Day until the end of the term, like most schools it was not actually "shut down". Classes were made "voluntarily optional" for the time and students were graded "Pass/Fail" for the work done up to then. Trial of McLucas Black Panther trial sketch...
Category

1970s American Modern Will Barnet Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Pen, Pencil, Paper

Previously Available Items
The Lesson II
By Will Barnet
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original watercolor painting by American artist Will Barnet. This work has excellent provenance and exhibition history and would come with a certificate of authenticity.
Category

1990s Realist Will Barnet Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Watercolor

Will Barnet drawings and watercolor paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Will Barnet drawings and watercolor paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Will Barnet in paint, watercolor, archival paper and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Will Barnet drawings and watercolor paintings, so small editions measuring 12 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Ivan Chermayeff, Louisa Chase, and Jackson Lee Nesbitt. Will Barnet drawings and watercolor paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $12,500 and tops out at $28,500, while the average work can sell for $12,750.

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